The Other Sister
by heathenseyes
Summary: The Goa'uld threat is spreading rapidly, feeling a bit outgunned, SGC starts looking to increase it defenses from home. The Initiative is willing to drop a name for a price but what happens when it is Sam's sister?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing of SG1 or of BtVS, although I would like to own Michael Shanks, I would be such a happy girl. LOL. Seriously though, all characters belong to their creators and the who ever else they belong to, which is not me in any way shape or form.

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Kawalsky leaned back in his chair, laughing at the thunderstruck Colonel.

"I did what?" Two air men that had been walking past shot the Colonel startled glances at his incredulous tone.

The major smirked. "Oh yeah; General Orlando never even knew who flew them on the flag pole. It was there half a day just waving in the wind outside of his office. Hell, he threatened the entire base with a court martial if no one came forward. Two weeks later he was transferred."

Jack shook his head. He remembered thinking about it, sure, and who hadn't? The general had been an ass in more than one way. But he'd never acted on the impulse, even after he had learned about the heart-spotted boxers that the general was rumored to have owned. Great! His alternate from the other reality had not only been happily married, but he'd also flown a general's undies on a flag pole. Damn, he'd have to top that somehow.

"I recognize that gleam," Kawalsky said, a hint of a smile on his face. The Major burst out with a loud laugh at the 'who, me?' look that Jack gave him, nearly tipping back his chair.

"So what about you, Kawalsky? What happened?" Jack had almost called him Charlie, but, he had stopped himself. For a moment the Colonel had to remind himself that his Charlie, the man after whom he had named his own son was dead, and even though this was Charles Kawalsky, it wasn't Charlie Kawalsky. The realization hurt.

A little voice in Jack's head calmly pointed out that this wasn't Charlie, that it was a double from another reality. Luckily, Jack was really good at ignoring the little voices in his head. The same little voices, which were more then a little prudish, had been the reason he hadn't flown those boxers in the first place in his own reality.

A shadow passed over his friend's face, the smile faltering, and Jack regretted the question. "Listen, you don't have to--"

Kawalsky shook his head. "No, it's okay. I got engaged. About four years ago. To a cheerleader, if you can believe it."

"A cheerleader?!?"

"Yeah, a cheerleader. Well, she was one in high school, anyway. I met her the summer she came and visited Sammy and... her husband. It was love at first sight. She was...incredible."

Kawalsky fell silent, his eyes darkening with the memories.

"She died less then a year after we were married, exactly fourteen months after we had met. It was before the damn snakes even started attacking. She and her w...partner were attacked coming back from a...a stakeout. They had been left for dead. By the time I got to the hospital, her partner had died and she had been nearly bled dry. The damage was too bad. They tried, though, they really did. Doctor said she had been askin' for me. Said she was just holdin' on, they hadn't even told her that Merrick was dead, they were too afraid that she would die right then and there if they did. It was the hardest thing I had ever done before, walking into that room. She was hooked up to so many damned machines. But she woke up when I picked up her hand, she smiled at me, and then she died. I would've lost it, if it hadn't been for you and Sammy."

"She was a cop?"

Kawalsky smiled sadly. "Yeah, buddy, something like that."

Straightening up, Kawalsky leaned onto the table top, worry etching his face. "Sammy's gonna be okay, right? I mean, once they figure something out? I know what the doc said, but still..."

"Don't worry, she'll be fine. Between the two of them, I'm sure they will come up with something." There was a pause as Jack was trying to figure out how to ask the next question. "You really care for her, don't you? You never even really knew her in this reality."

"Yeah, she's the only thing I have left of Beth."

Jack raised an eyebrow at the statement.

"Beth, she was my wife. I promised her before she died that I'd always take care of her sister. It's the one promise that I intend to keep."

"Sister? You mean Carter had a sister?"

Kawalsky looked a little surprised at the question. "Well, yeah; it was always a joke between us, about the two of them marrying into the military. Huh, I guess she didn't exist in this reality. Too bad, Jack, you would have loved her."

The two continued to talk for hours, catching up on a lifetime that they hadn't shared, each pretending that it was their old friend who was sitting before them. Each one pretending that, for the night, their ghosts didn't exist. Remembering happier times that seemed -- now, more then ever -- to be so far away.

---

Just to let you know its set after Chosen and post season two of SG1, though I haven't decided exactly when. The next chapter will be on the two Sam's and then I'll fast forward a little.

This is in response to a challenge issued on TtH. Mainly, Buffy is Carter's sister and its reunion time, though neither one is expecting it. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two 

Disclaimer: I still own nothing of SG1 or of BtVS.

Set after Chosen on BtVS and two days after Point of View on SG1.

---

Sam stared at her reflection, searching for a hint of the person that her duplicate was.

Nope, same old same old. Great.

"Sam?"

Carter whirled around to see Daniel standing at her door. She hadn't even heard him knock.

"Sorry to bother you, but, I saw your light on and the door was open. Thought you might want to talk," Daniel stopped at the look in his friend's eyes, her expression one that he was very familiar with. It was the same expression that he had seen in the mirror for the past three years each morning when he reminded himself that Shar'ee was no longer there. That a part of his heart and soul was no longer present. "Are you ok?"

Smiling Sam put down the cold cloth she was holding and stepped out of the bathroom and towards the archaeologist that stood in her doorway. She sighed softly; and the smile seemed to melt from her face.

"No, not really."

"You want to talk about it?" The archaeologist asked as he took a step into her room.

"Got a couple of hours?"

"Yeah, I do." Sam looked at her friend for a moment before sitting on her bed. Daniel closed the door behind him and carefully sat beside her. "So…?"

"There are a couple of things that I've never talked to any of you about, things that I guess I thought I should be ashamed of." Jackson looked at Carter with interest; knowing how difficult it was for her to talk about her past.

"You see, I had a sister, she'd have been… God, I don't know, about twenty three now. She had… well, she'd always been kind of different. After mom died, I didn't know what to do with her and neither did dad. She ended up in some...trouble; I abandoned her when she really needed someone to believe in her. I left her in an institution because I couldn't handle it. Some kind of sister, huh? Talking to Samantha earlier…" Sam stopped and looked at her hand, at the small scar on her palm, "I started wondering what would have happened if I had done things differently. If she would still be alive."

"How did she die?"

"I don't know. Three years ago I got a letter in the mail. Some guy, a Mr. Giles of Sunnydale; said that she had passed away. That's it… nothing more. No reason why, or how, or anything. He wouldn't even tell me when the funeral was, I guess he didn't think I deserved to be there. Just that she had died and that I should be proud of her."

"Sam, I'm so sorry, " he started but she shook off his comforting hand.

"I didn't even know she was in Sunnydale, I thought that she was still in Los Angeles. After I got the letter, I tried to reach Aunt Joyce but I found out she had died earlier that year. I never even knew. Buffy never called to tell me. I know she must have been mad at me when I had left her in there but I thought it was for the best. She was talking about demons and vampires! She was claiming to be something called the Slayer. She burned down the gym of her school. Thirty people were injured and three died. I just couldn't handle that. I didn't know how and I honestly thought she'd be better in there, where people could help her. It wasn't even for another three months when I returned that I found out Aunt Joyce had taken her out of there a week after I had visited her. I tried to talk to her then. I even tried to go through my Uncle Hank, he at least had a number for them. Do you know what she said? She said I wasn't her family any more, to leave her alone." Anguish filled Sam's eyes. "And I did. I never even knew my sister. I did try to find out everything about her after I found out about her death. I looked her files up, trying to find out what happened. There was nothing."

"You mean that there was no mention of how she died?" Daniel asked, a frown of confusion on his face.

"No. There was nothing. Her life after fifteen wasn't there. I don't know what kind of life she had and I'll never know. It's driving me crazy; was she happy, was she married, was she dating someone? What happened to my SISTER?" The last word was shouted and Sam began crying. Daniel drew her to him and tried to comfort her as best he could. Three years of pent up grief flowed our of her finally breaking free; she sobbed and sobbed until no more tears would come.

Daniel held her gently as he rocked his friend, uttering soothing sounds until Sam finally calmed slightly.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to unload on you. It's just that I talked to Samantha and we started talking about the differences between us. Turns out she never joined the military so that she could take care of her sister. Lizzie Kawalsky, who died at the age of twenty-one with her sister and her husband by her hospital bed. It's...I just wonder how things would have been. I wonder if she died all alone, if at the end of her life she died thinking that she was alone and there was no reason to keep on going." There was nothing that Jackson could say and for a long time after the two sat only in silence, Daniel lending as much comfort to his friend as possible, and Sam remained lost in her own thoughts of what might have been.

--

FYI: Buffy's death mentioned above was from the Gift. Giles is the only one that knew about Buffy's real family and he kept her secret, only notifying Sam of her sister's death and nothing more.  
Thank you for reading! Please review and let me know what you think.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three 

Disclaimer: I own nada of either the SG or Buffy verses.

Intro: The Goa'uld threat is spreading rapidly, feeling a bit outgunned, SGC starts looking to increase it defenses from home. The Initiative is willing to drop a name for a price; but what happens when it is Sam's sister?

The burly bounty hunter Aris Boch smiled wryly at the people before him. "I thought we were on the same side. I gave Carter a sample of the roshnah so that she could find a way for us to be free of the Goa'uld drug."

"Sure we are," Jack rocked on his heels, "but you did shoot Carter..." one hand rested negligently on the butt of his P-90.

"For some reason I have the feeling that you all don't really trust me still."

"Gee, I don't see why you would feel that," sarcasm dripping from Jack's honeyed tone as he began ticking off reasons with one hand, "though, it could possibly have to do with that whole trapping us thing, then almost blowing up part of my team, shooting Carter-"

"Hey, I only stunned the capt-" at the look that Carter shot the hunter, Boch quickly corrected his statement, "Major, I mean."

"Shut up, I'm monologuing," the colonel frowned, "where was I... oh, yeah, shooting Carter, recapturing us, which I knew you were going to do so you can't even say that it's because you're such a great blah blah blah, and you having been a pain in my ass today. No to mention that you blew up the U.A.V., which was the reason we originally had to come out here and, my personal favorite, let's not forget that you have been working for the Goa'uld for several years."

"So?"

"No. Boch, we're being all nice and letting you use the gate first to go where ever you were thinking about going to. Granted the decision could have something to do with the fact, and I'm sure that Korra would be happy to agree, that we would rather you didn't see the addresses we plan on dialing," the hunter didn't make a move towards the dial and stood smiling at the glare Jack directed towards him. "Go on, scoot." Jack made shoeing motions with his hands and Boch's smile widened. He was tired of the Goa'uld employed bounty hunter and the itch he felt between his shoulders blades around the other man.

Stepping forwards he dialed the address and the group watched him warily as he walked towards the glowing orifice. He stopped just before the gate and turned back to his watchers. "I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other again. Major Carter, I hope you have some good news for me when we do." With that he waved and stepped through the gate.

"Okay, kiddies, are we all ready? Yes? Good." Stepping forwards Jack had made it five feet from the dialing device before he stopped and swore. "Damn it, we forgot about the memory chip!" Turning back to his team he found Carter already starting back up their earlier trail.

"I've got it, sir." Carter said.

"I shall accompany MajorCarter, O'Neill, I find myself needing some, as I believe you would say, fresh air."

As the Jaffa left, Jack shook his head. "We should tell him that the whole fresh air thing doesn't really work when you're outside... in the fresh air," he said to no one in particular and turned towards the Tok'ra. Jack raised a questioning eyebrow as he noticed the man leaning again a near by tree. "Hey there Korra, you're lookin' kinda green around the gills. You hanging in there ok?"

"I am well, Colonel O'Neill, but shall rest while they are gone." The dark man's head dropped in exhaustion and his eyes fluttered closed.

Jack regarded him for several moments before looking at Daniel. "I think we'll just let him nap."

Daniel sighed as he kneeled down and took out the notebook from his backpack, jotting down a couple of notes about what Boch and Korra had said about the bounty hunter's people. An entire race resistant to Goa'uld blending; incredible.

An hour later, Daniel was still kneeling on the ground. Taking notes down about the hunter's enhanced physiology made him think about what Sam had spoken to him about nearly a month ago. Her sister, who had claimed to be a slayer. He couldn't quite place why the name bugged him so much, why it kept pulling at his memory. His notebook was gripped loosely in one hand while in his other hand the pen that he was holding stood in danger of falling. His eyes unfocused as he stared into the depths of the forest while he made an attempt to organize his thoughts. They were a rather jumbled mess with only one actual focused thought; the Slayer. Where had he heard it before? The slayer, the slayer, the-

"Slayer," the word was whispered so softly that Jack paused mid-poke, his finger hovering inches away from the distracted archeologist's shoulder. Even though the colonel was less then a foot away from the younger man the word had been spoken so quietly that he had almost missed it. Almost would have said the younger man had simply sighed; almost.

"Kill who?" The question broke Daniel out of his reverie. Shooting startled look at Jack, Jackson hurriedly pushed his notebook into the pack and stood, making an attempt at nonchalance as he dusted the dirt from his hands. Daniel hadn't been aware that he had even said the word aloud. The word... the name... the Slayer. He ground his teeth in frustration. Since a month ago, when Sam had confided the small tidbit about her past, Daniel had made numerous attempts to research the name and each time he hadn't been able too for one reason or another. Had he been religious, he would have said that something was trying to stop him. But, since he wasn't religious, he wasn't even going to think it. Yeah, sure.

"Come on, Danny," Jack prompted. The Colonel had been disgruntled to find out that Danny had been ignoring him while he had spoken to him about fishing and fishing baits when he had first noticed that Daniel wasn't longer paying attention to him, or at least more then normal when ever he talked about fishing. The archeologist off in his own little la-la land once again. However, it was the first time that the Space Monkey had suddenly started talking about killing people while in la-la land and had been unsettling to say the least. "Kill who?"

"What?" Daniel was making an attempt to ignore the Colonel and scanned the trees for signs of Teal'c and Carter.

"You said slay her."

"What are you talking about, Jack? I didn't say anything." Sweat had started beading Daniel's brow and he could feel it trickle down his back as his nervousness increased, this was really the last conversation he wanted to have with Jack, especially when Sam could show up at any moment. What she had mentioned her sister calling herself, the Slayer, had been nagging at the back of his mind, and he was itching to find out why. However, Jackson found himself incredibly unwilling to tell the Major that he was pretty certain that he had read something about a mythical being before, one called by that very name, and especially not when it might mean that the poor girl hadn't been insane. Daniel really didn't think that Sam could handle that, or at least, not right now.

"Yeah, you did."

"No, I didn't."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Yep."

"No."

"Uh-huh."

"Jack..."

"You did," Jack shook his head in disagreement, having the air of a man who, for once, was entirely in the right. Daniel looked frantically around, he swore he could hear footsteps, glancing at his watch his eyes widened and he breathed out in relief. Jack shot him a look, but, continued. "You said sla-"

"Wow, look at the time, if we don't hurry up, you'll miss the Simpson's."

"Who cares about the..." Jacks words trailed as realization set in. Taking a look at his own watch he swore as the alarm chose that moment to chime. "Damn it, I'm supposed to be making popcorn right now. Where the hell are Carter and Teal'c?"

He looked around, scanning the foliage for a sign of the missing team mates. "Knew I should have gone with her, she's probably found some plant that she has to just have a sample of... Oh, God, she's probably cataloging something right now!" Daniel fought to hide the smile tugging at his lips.

Apparently he didn't do a good enough job, Jack turned and glared at the archaeologist. For his part, Jackson did his best to look innocent, failing miserably.

"Danny boy, you have to have a lot more practice before I fall for that 'I don't know what you're talking about' look." Glancing away Jack scanned the line of trees surrounding them, smiling as he saw Teal'c and Carter. O'Neill shot an amused look at the younger man. "And don't even try the puppy dog eyes or the innocent look. I'm not forgetting about this, you just have a temporary reprieve."

"A reprieve from what?" Sam asked catching the tail end of his sentence, in her hands there was a small memory chip, nearly the size of her palm, looking incredibly charred.

"Six hours for to retrieve a frickin' piece of plastic." The colonel groused, glaring at the burnt data chip.

"Sir, the engineer said-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know what the geeks, no offense Carter, said. Hammond told me before sending us on this little jaunt. Get the memory chips and they can make the U.A.V.'s better, they can make them stronger, and for only 4.95 in shipping and a forty thousand monthly payments of 12.95, you too can own a flying thingy that goes all klabowie when hit close range by a missile."

"Well, sir, it's not a total waste. We did meet Boch." Sam said optimistically.

"And we saved a Tok'ra." Added Daniel, happy for the diversion.

"Yeah, great. We meet a bounty hunter who was intelligent enough to destroy the U.A.V. to lure us here in order to use us to capture another Goa'uld, who was actually a Tok'ra agent, and then Teal'c gives himself up to take the Tok'ra's place. No offense, Korra, I'm sure that your a great guy and all, but, I'm exactly to pleased about almost losing a member of my team because Sokar wanted you."

"I take no offense, Colonel O'Neill, and thank you and your team for rescuing me."

"So, what brought you out all this way anyhow?"

"I am unsure of whether I am allowed to speak of it." Korra's eyes flickered towards the sky and he absently rubbed at a small scar on his arm; Jack rather thought he appeared a mite nervous, though whether it was over being almost turned over to Sokar or sharing the information the Tok'ra had learned, the Colonel couldn't tell.

O'Neill threw his arm around the taller man and smiled broadly, when ever in doubt... think of something really quick. "Oh, don't worry; I'm sure that when we get back to the SGC that you can share all the gritty details with us before you head back home. After all, you have a lot of injuries and it would only be neighborly and all if good old doc Frasier took a look at you, which means that you'll have plenty of time to talk to me."

They began making their way back towards the gate when Sam remembered that her question hadn't been answered.

"So, what did we miss?"

"Oh, nothing much, just Danny talking 'bout death and dismemberment. You know just another apocalyptic Tuesday." Jack said as he started walking towards the gate. He had made it several steps before he realized that no one was behind him. "What?"

"You said apocalyptic." The shock was evident in Daniel's voice, the feeling reflected in Sam's surprised brown eyes.

Jack gave a long suffering sigh. "Yes, I know some big words, no, I don't just sit around and watch T.V all day and now, I would like if you all could get moving so I don't miss the Simpson's." With the remark, Jack turned with out another word and walked off, disappearing through the brush that led to the gate.

"Danny?!?" Came an impatient shout a moment later. "Will you hurry up and dial the damn thing!"

There was a moment of silence and Daniel started mentally counting down in his head; five, four, three, two, one…

"Daniel!"

"And there he goes." Carter said, smiling.

Daniel looked over at Carter who was looking at a small vial in her hands. "Hey, isn't that…"

"Yes. It's incredible," Sam said as she held the small vial aloft, in the fading light the liquid contents gave of a soft blue nimbus. "Boch's race is entirely humanoid in appearance, but completely resistant to symbiosis with the Goa'uld. God, what I would give to find out how they differ from us and what makes them incompatible to the Goa'uld physiology."

"Well jeez, Carter, would you like us to go back and see if we find Boch out and can him knock out, perhaps you could dissect him real quick." O'Neill said as he stood before them, tapping his foot as the two trailing figures drew closer. Teal'c already standing a safe distance from the gate, evidently ready to leave as well.

"Sir, they are completely inhospitable for the Goa'uld as hosts-"

"I'll break out a flag. Come on people, let's get a move on." The colonel tightened the straps on his pack and looked expectantly and the archaeologist. "Gonna dial that thing up any time soon?"

Jackson rolled his eyes but started dialing in the sequence, ignoring Jack who was leaned over and looking over Daniel's shoulder as he punched the symbols in.

"Jack," he finally said, stepping back and causing the colonel to stumble back, "I'm not dialing it if you keep looking over my shoulder."

The blond man shot him and innocent look and Daniel sighed as he entered the last symbol. Jack had been right, he was going to have to practice that look some more, he hadn't mastered it nearly as well as O'Neill.

Thanks for reading, hope every one enjoyed and please review, they make my day.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four 

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything.

Summary: After leaving her sister in a mental institution years ago, Sam Carter had thought she had gotten over Elizabeth Summers untimely death three years ago. But, when Carter's alternate self from another reality comes through the Quantum Mirror she hears that Dr. Samantha Carter's ( "I prefer Samantha, thanks") sister, though having died at a young age, had a wonderful life, a loving husband, and a supportive sister. The incident leaves Carter wondering, had she not abandoned her own sister, would the young woman still be alive? Or, at the very least, would she have died knowing that her sister had loved her? But, is her sister really as dead as she believes? Nah. After all, what would have happened if no one had informed Sam that her sister had been brought back to life a year after her death? And now with the Goa'uld inching closer and closer, secrets and misconceptions are ready to be brought into the light, whether any one wants them to be or not.

- CHAPTER FOUR-

Across the galaxy, heedless of the possibility of aliens bent on world domination, with the possible exception of Andrew, one very paranoid young man who the others tended to ignore, and in a very large and noisy house, a girl stood amidst a pile a discarded packing paper, empty boxes, and torn tape.

Early in the fight against the first, as people began to flood out of Sunny dale, it was proposed by Giles that perhaps, just perhaps, several houses and buildings could be destroyed during the upcoming battle. After all, no one had ever gone against the first evil and no one was sure what quite the ramifications of winning the battle would be. Though they were all very aware that losing the fight meant that humanity was extinct. Plus, the bringers had attacked the house so often that there was no telling whether the Summers' residence would be able to withstand another attack.

In the mad dash to prepare for the fledging Slayerettes, the Scooby gang had gathered their most precious belongings and sent them all to Angel and the Fang Gang. Every one smiled and said it was 'just in case', no one wanting to believe that everything they had could be destroyed, but, one thing the Hellmouth had taught it's residences was to be always prepared. And following the destruction of Sunnydale, no one had been able to think beyond the fact that their home was destroyed and now they needed their stuff, the only visible links to a past that they had literally buried underneath several tons of rubble.

Upon arrival in L.A., Lorne had been the one to suggest that the bedraggled survivors remain in Angel's now unused hotel, the place where Angel Investigations had once been operated from, and think of their next move.

Two weeks after they had arrived every one was ready to move on, disturbed not only by Angel's distance, but, also his groups reluctance to discuss what was going on at Evil Inc.; granted the reason they told them about their abrupt departure was that they all desired to have their own home again.

Packed with only the belongings they had shipped months ago, the survivors traveled to Cleveland, setting up operations in an abandoned and very dilapidated mansion. When the group had first walked into the mansion, before they even had a real idea about the kind of place they really wanted, piles of dust had accumulated over years of disuse, rather large and intimidating webs hung from the ceiling, and the first step Giles had taken up the stair case, his foot had gone through the rotten wood. Every one had been vehemently against the acquisition until Xander had spoken for the first time since they had walked through the once grand entrance. Xander's first words had been that he could fix it up in a jiffy and no one had wanted to tell him no; the young man needing something to do so badly now that Anya was dead. After the simple statement Xander began to walk away, talking about plans for the building and one pleading look later from Dawn had Buffy and Giles caving in right then, both telling Kennedy to shut up when she voiced her dislike of the 'dump', as she called it. And, thus, had the growing group found their new home, a very large and beautiful building after months of work which could house both the current and any newly activated Slayers, the Scooby Gang, the newly reformed Watcher's Council, and most recently a blond vampire, and a very musical, very green demon.

However, although they had moved with all of their possessions from L.A., no one had really turned their attentions to unpacking, not with renovations, purchasing furniture, reforming the Council, and training the new girls needing to be done.

Which is why Dawn Summers now stood nearly buried in discarded packing paper and cardboard, grinning happily at the lone box that sat before her.

After seven months she was down to one box.

"I am the ma-woman!"

"Oh, really? I would have said twerp." Buffy stood in the doorway, smiling from at her younger sister as she leaned against the door frame.

Dawn stuck her tongue out and expertly tossed her hair, hmphing at the petite blonde.

"Ok, gotta make a note to make sure you spend a lot less time with Lorne, he's rubbing off on you." Rolling her eyes, Buffy walked in and hopped up to sit beside the box that her sister was about to open. Buffy remembered the vivacious and vibrantly dressed demon from the two weeks they had spent with Angel as her little party readied for their next move and the demon who showed up on their doorstep two months later looked nothing like the Lorne that she had watched old movies and gone shopping with, but, she was happy that he was at last coming out of his shell and beginning to smile again. "Speaking of the big green, I thought he was in here with you."

"Nope, Lorne said he needed to do some thinking and Spike took him out to a bar." Dawn smiled at the thought, there were unlikelier friends then Spike and Lorne, and the two had bonded quickly after the show down in Los Angeles when the two showed up at the Scoobies new house within a day of each other; granted a great deal of it had been over a sincere dislike of Angel.

"I just hope Spike didn't take him to a karaoke bar again. I am so not going to pick them up this time." Leaning over, Buffy tapped on the box beside her, feeling slightly guilty that Dawn had been the one to unpack most of their belongings. "So, that's the last one, huh?"

"Yep. One more and we'll be moved in."

"Moved in? Boy, you sure could've fooled me these past seven months since we settled in Cleveland's Hell Mouth," The blonde said sarcastically.

"They don't officially count though, two of those months we were looking for somewhere to live, and since then every one has been so busy with the restructuring of the watcher's council and training the new slayers, we haven't even been able to actually work on unpacking everything and making this place…well, home." Dawn's eyes briefly flitted over to Buffy who had quirked an inquiring eyebrow. "You know what I mean; remember when we moved from Los Angeles?" Dawn asked. "It took almost three months to unpack everything and mom always said-"

"That home isn't home until the last box is unpacked." Buffy finished.

"Yep. Ah-ha." Dawn held the knife up exultantly but the smile faded from her face. Buffy hoped down and looped an arm around her sister's waist.

"What's wrong? Dawn?"

"You remember that night we finally put out the last box?" Buffy nodded, she did remember, only she had two sets of the memory, one with and one without her sister. "Mom made us come downstairs, we weren't talking right then, I had read your diary and you were mucho mad at me, but, mom said we had to get over it because we were sisters and were stuck together. She brought it out and said it was the very last one and then we all opened it up; it had all the pictures. A ton of mom and dad and she spent hours telling the stories behind most of them. She said that we were finally home," Dawn looked as her sister, the green eyes troubled, "I remember her telling you that it was our final move; that we were home." Dawn fell silent again and Buffy hugged the tall girl.

"Well, we're home now."

"We're going to move again aren't we?" Dawn asked, staring intently at her sister, searching for an answer that Buffy was unsure of herself.

Buffy drew back, looking at her sister with equally troubled eyes. "Why do you say that?"

"I don't know. It's just a feeling I get some times. You're always looking out the window when you think we aren't paying attention. You haven't... you haven't been the same since... since that night." Dawn looked down at the floor, avoiding her sister's probing gaze, and shrugged.

Neither sister deemed it necessary to mention which night Dawn was talking about; both knew. The blonde Slayer was still having difficulty mending the bonds with her friends and sister. The memory of them turning on her hit too close to home, to close to other memories of a family Buffy had locked away that had abandoned her. Buffy had thought that she had healed over those feelings of abandonment, but when her second family turned away from her, all of the old pains and insecurities had resurfaced.

After Buffy had returned with the scythe only hours after Dawn and the others had kicked the oldest Slayer out of her own house, she had told them that she never wanted the incident mentioned, and it hadn't been, but, it still hung heavily between them all.

"Dawn, look at me," Buffy gently took her sister's chin in her hand and tugged her face down, mentally rolling her eyes at the fact that her sister now towered four inches over her. "Listen to me, we are home. We are together, we're family, and nothing will keep our family apart. Nothing. We've survived demons, vampires, watchers, death, well at least I did, you hitting puberty, a hell goddess, a psycho doctor, and maniacal reporters; there's nothing that we haven't faced and kicked its ass. Nothing out there will keep us apart, and even if we do move again, we'll move together, I'm not leaving you again, I promise."

Dawn offered a watery smiled, running a hand under beneath her nose as she sniffled.

"Eww, tissue." Buffy said and whipped out a handkerchief.

Laughing Dawn blew her nose and was about to offer the cotton cloth back before Buffy held up a hand. "Ok, I love you but you're not five any more and I don't want your boogies in my pocket. You can keep it." Laughing the brunette hugged her sister and the two stayed that way for several moments before either one moved away.

Andrew suddenly streaked past the door at that moment shrieking Buffy's name.

"That sounds bad." The blonde slayer said, wincing at the high pitch of the young man's voice which remained stubbornly loud and annoying even though he had passed by the room and was headed outside. From above them there was a loud crash and even louder shouting. For a moment, neither heard anything, but, the moment was short lived and before either spoke they heard screams and several more crashes followed by another momentary pause and then the sound of heavy thuds and Kennedy's angry yell as she landed at the base of the stairs on her ass. Faith leaped down from the stairs and the two continued fighting. Buffy looked over at her sister and they shared a weary, but, amused smile. The blonde sighed as she stood up and walked over to the door.

"You gonna be okay?" Buffy asked, stopping at the door. Dawn smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, I'll just start unpacking."

"Ok, I'll break them apart and be back in a few to help you finish up okay? Then you and I will go out to celebrate without a gaggle of people"

"Yeah, sure, that'd be great."

Buffy had just stepped out of the room when her sister's voice stopped her.

"Buffy?"

"Hmm?" There was another loud crash, a startled shout, and then from outside the hall they heard Lauren shout. "Oh my God! They destroyed the fucking door! Hey! Buffy's gonna be mad at y'all if you don't stop!"

The slayer wrinkled her nose, yep, definitely home, nothing could be louder.

"I know we can take demons and all the supernatural baddies that the PTB throw against us, but, what about aliens?" Dawn asked teasingly and Buffy shuddered at the question. Both remembered Andrew's latest obsession with aliens, Area 51, government conspiracies, and how the government supposedly had some methods of traveling to others worlds.

"Yeah right, aliens don't exist. Not even the PTB would be that mean." Laughing the blonde jogged out, making her way down the hall, away from her sister, and towards the sounds of fighting.

Sighing Dawn turned back to the waiting box and started to unpack it; still troubled by the feeling that something very big was on the way.

And hour later Buffy walked back through the door, smiling happily, with a Cheshire cat grin upon her face.

Dawn looked up from where she was sitting on the floor, photos spread out around her. "So what happened?"

Buffy shrugged as she sat down beside her sister, picking up a picture. "Oh, nothing much, same old same old. Kennedy saw Faith hug Willow, Kennedy accused Willow of sleeping with Faith, both of them denying it, Kennedy bitch slapping Faith and calling her a whore before running to Faith's room and grabbing her favorite leather pants which she proceeded to destroy, Faith finding her and tossing her out of her room, Faith knocking Kennedy down the stairs and then through the new door, some tussling, and then I doused both with the hose."

"The garden hose? That's not too bad." Dawn said with a snort.

The blonde smirked, flipping through the pictures. "No, the fire hose that Giles had them put in after the big boom that Willow caused a few months ago."

"Eww, that had to hurt."

"Yep, from their curses, I do believe so." Buffy looked at the picture in her hand. Joyce stared up at her, smiling and young, forever frozen with the carefree expression that Buffy had only rarely seen upon her mother's face. "So the last box was full of pictures. Kinda spooky."

"Tell me about it. You know though, there's some pics in here I don't recognize."

Buffy looked up interested. "Really? What?"

Dawn leaned over and picked up a photo she had placed beside her. "I mean I recognized you but I have no idea who the other..." The young woman's voice trailed off as she looked up at her sister. "Buffy? Buffy what's wrong?" Dawn asked worriedly.

Buffy's face had paled beneath her makeup, the blush on her cheeks standing out harshly against the pale face. Her hazel eyes were wide with shock and Dawn reached over, taking a trembling hand in her own. She hadn't seen her older sister this freaked out since the night that Buffy had returned from the dead and had to dig herself out of her own grave. The younger woman was willing to admit that Buffy's reaction to this was… frightening. Buffy stood straight up, her sudden ascent causing a stack of photos by her to topple and fall. She was still clutching at the picture and heedless of the other photos that lay now scattered on the floor.

Dawn could see her sister shutting down her emotions as the hazel eyes grew glassy; hiding the feelings she was repressing as though they weren't even there.

"They're no one." Buffy said and stood. "Listen, I got wet from the whole hosing them down thing and gotta go change and then we'll go out and celebrate the whole official moving in thing." Dawn nodded, still shocked and her sister gave her a tight smile that didn't reach the hazel eyes as she crumpled the picture, tossing it into the trash can before she hurried out.

Dawn stared in shocked silence for several moments before carefully standing and making her way towards the trash can. Picking the crumpled photo out of the can she looked down in curiosity, seeking some idea of why it had upset her sister so much.

Nope; nothing extraordinary about it. A balding dark haired man and pretty blonde woman stood close to each other, their eyes happy as they looked down at the two girls and a boy who were wrestling on the ground. The boy was laying on the ground, his eyes closed, but a smile playing at his lips, and the larger blonde girl had a pretty good hold on the smaller girl who looked like she was laughing. Dawn recognized the smaller girl. Buffy still had the same look at times when she was genuinely happy and it was a look she rarely saw anymore. Carefully she put the picture in her back pocket for later. Given how her sister had reacted to the picture, Dawn was glad she hadn't told Buffy about the folders she had found beneath the pictures. And she wouldn't, at least not until she read them first. But first, she had to get ready to go, and then later, well, later she was going to find out who the people in the picture were.

Some one had hurt her sister at some time, some one that Dawn had never meet, and the knowledge that Dawn didn't recognize any one else besides Buffy worried the brunette. The monks had seamlessly integrated Dawn into Buffy's past. They had actually spent a night discussing the differences, Dawn had asked Buffy for almost a month straight before the Slayer had relented, and never, not once, had her sister ever talked about any of these people. But it still wasn't as disturbing as the fact that some one had hurt her sister, yeah, Dawn admitted they had messed up, they weren't perfect, but even on that night, Dawn didn't see Buffy lose her control as much as she had just now. Some one had hurt her sister and Dawn was going to make sure that they would never have the opportunity to do so again.

-----

Daniel leaned back in his chair, attempting to stop the spasms as his aching back protested the several hours he had spent bent over various book, researching to no avail the Slayer.

In the month since Carter had told Daniel the tragic story of her sister's short and very mysterious life, the name had been tugging at Daniel's memory. Now, having returned from their latest mission after a downed U.A.V. that, in turn, had led to a very interesting encounter with a Goa'uld employed bounty hunter, Daniel finally had a free moment to try and satisfy his curiosity. Granted he really hoped that he was wrong and that he hadn't come across the name before. The archaeologist didn't want to be the one that had to tell Sam that there had been an actual mention of the Slayer before, that maybe her sister hadn't been crazy. He really didn't.

"The Slayer, hmmmm…." His hand trailed along the bindings of an ancient book, the pages of leather had grown stiff with the passage of time, though the ink still held surprisingly well despite its age.

Another forty minutes later, Daniel was still behind his desk, hunched over a book. Around him books, scrolls, papers, and in a couple of cases, tablets lay strewn on every space of his desk. All lay forgotten though, as none of them had contained the information he sought. Leaning back in his chair he rubbed at his red rimmed eyes and picked up the last untouched book. Sighing he flipped the leather bound cover open and began to skim through the pages, a smell of decay wafting with each page turn, the ink was invisible from age.

"Slayer, Slayer, Slay- uh-oh." Shit, he was right, he had heard about the Slayer. There it was in all its faded glory, an ancient reference to the Slayer. Surprise at the discovery warring with both the elation of having found out a possible clue that validated the existence of a mythical being and also empathy with Sam. Telling her that there was references to the Slayer would be like losing her sister twice. It wasn't easy losing a person you loved twice, the feeling was one that Daniel knew and would have spared Sam the knowledge of ever knowing.

The blue eyes widened as he began to translate the runes before him, one finger of his left hand skimming along the page as he read the script while his right hand jotted down the notes as he translated the text.

Another hour had passed before he sat back in his chair, thoughtfully regarding the book before him. He almost hadn't pulled it; unlike most of his collection it didn't deal with gods, with Egypt, with mythology really at all, and instead it dealt with lore demon lore in particular.

Pausing to unbury his phone from the mountain of books covering it, Daniel picked it up, his hand hovering over the key pad. Punching in the extension he heard the phone ring; one, two, come on and pick up the phone-

"Hey Jack," there was a pause as Daniel listened to O'Neill begin the usual litany that the Colonel ran through any time that Daniel interrupted his TV time.

"No, I'm not injured or sick…" frowning, Daniel rolled his eyes as the questions kept coming from the colonel.

"No, I don't need to go and see Janet…

"No, I haven't taken leave of my senses, at least, that I am aware of. Listen, Jack, I found…"

Daniel sighed as he listened to his friend, his free hand moving to massage his head, a futile attempt at easing the headache that was beginning to form. He began to shake his head in disagreement when he realized that Jack couldn't see him. "No, I wasn't aware that there was an A-Team marathon…

"Thank you, but, no, I don't really want to come over and watch it…

"Listen, Jack….

"Jack!...

"Could you please turn off the T.V.? Thanks. Jack, I found something and I think you should come and see it…

"No, Jack, you should come here…

"I know I don't have a T.V. in my office, that's why you should come here instead of me going to your room…

"No, I can't go into it over the phone; it would take to long….

"Teal'c? He's there?...

"Oh, I see, I think, though I would argue about it being a staple of Earth life…

"No, ask him to come with you, he should hear this as well…

"Okay, see you in a few." The phone receiver had barely settled down before Daniel snatched it back up and redialed the extension.

"Jack?...

"Yeah, one thing, don't let Sam know you're coming over…

"She's still in the lab?...

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about the roshnah, well, just don't tell her…

"Jack?!?!...

"No, I'll tell you when you get here…

"Jack, for God's sake, if the curiosity is killing you then you should hang up the phone and hu-"

Daniel found himself talking to the dial tone and sighed as he put the receiver back on its cradle.

"Great, now all I have to do is wait." He said to himself and looked back at the book, he was still for a moment before he flipped to the next page and continued, mumbling under his breath as he translated.

The guilt he felt about sharing the information that Carter had confided in him was overwhelmed by the knowledge that when he told her, and he would, this wasn't something that he would ever keep hidden from his friend, she would need her family around her, and for better or worse they were her family now.

Whew!! Hope y'all like the chapter. Just wanna say thanks to the lovelies who've helped and prompted me along! And kisses to all of my reviewers.

Please let me know what you think; reviews make my day. As always, any questions, just send them all on in and I'll answer any that I can.

P.S.- Definitely more surprises to come! The next chapter is gonna be a dozy. ::Evil smirk:: Tehetehe.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five 

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of either SG1 or BtVS.

Summary: After leaving her sister in a mental institution years ago, Sam Carter had thought she had gotten over Elizabeth Summers untimely death three years ago. But, when Carter's alternate self from another reality comes through the Quantum Mirror she hears that Dr. Samantha Carter's ( "I prefer Samantha, thanks") sister, though having died at a young age, had a wonderful life, a loving husband, and a supportive sister. The incident leaves Carter wondering, had she not abandoned her own sister, would the young woman still be alive? Or, at the very least, would she have died knowing that her sister had loved her? But, is her sister really as dead as she believes? Nah. After all, what would have happened if no one had informed Sam that her sister had been brought back to life a year after her death? And now with the Goa'uld inching closer and closer, secrets and misconceptions are ready to be brought into the light, whether any one wants them to be or not.

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Chapter Five:

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Buffy stared unseeing into the mirror on her dresser.

She shivered on the warm summer's day. The sunlight and warmth that filtered in from the open window seemed only to make the Slayer colder and she hugged herself tightly as she tried to drive away the cold.

Goose bumps sprinkled her arms and chest, spiraling down to her newly jean clad legs. The heavy denim material gave her scant protection as the cold continued its invasion.

In her hand the new shirt remained forgotten and the delicate red lace and silk creation, a mere scrap of red material barely enough to cover the alabaster skin of the Slayer, fell to the ground from nerveless fingers.

Silent tears slipped down Buffy's cheeks un-noticed.

Once upon a time, she hadn't always despised her birthdays.

Birthdays had been special; her mother would make her a cake and some times, some times, her daddy had even been able to be home.

She remembered that day from the picture. It had been taken on her sixth birthday when they had spent the weekend on the lake; one of the few times that her family had been together and happy.

It had been so long since she had allowed herself to remember, so very long; she had never even known that Joyce had kept that picture.

Buffy sat down hard upon her bed, unseeing of anything but the memories that were sweeping over her.

It was as though there was a war raging in her mind.

In one life she was the oldest daughter of Hank and Joyce Summers, the sister of Dawn Summers, she had lived in California for nearly her entire life, and been happy for much of her formative years.

No tragedies had marred her younger years until her fifteenth year, when, after she had been called, she had lost her first Watcher.

In this life Merrick was the first person to have ever died on her that she had care for and she had even been admitted into the mental institution, but, it had been by Joyce and Hank, who had just been worried about their eldest daughter.

And even though it was all a lie, even though the memories were only figments of imagination that the monks had implanted in Buffy, she clung to those memories tightly, as though they were her savior.

Still though, there was another set of memories, the true ones; the ones she had worked so hard to forget. 

How could she tell Dawn that when Willow had cast that spell three years ago that she hadn't been angry at the monks or her sister?

The spell was supposed to have only shown her the truth in order to guide her to Glory and instead had made her world a mockery.

It had shown her life as a web of dreams, and that the lies she had held as truth for nearly a year had just been a fairy tale.

No, the true anger had been at the realization that just another part of her life was a lie.

How could she tell Dawn that she wasn't Buffy Summers?

No.

She was Buffy Summers.

The other girl had died long ago; it had been Buffy's decision to shed her old life. Joyce had tried to stop her, but, if they didn't want her, then why would she want them?

Oh, God. How as she going to explain any of this?

She had to call Mark. Mark would know. Of any one from her past, Mark would know what to do.

Shit.

Mark.

How was she going to explain to Dawn that Mark wasn't their cousin?

That he was actually their older brother.

He had been the only one to accept her scared plea for help after she had first run away from Sunnydale to Los Angeles following after she had sent Angel to hell. The brother that she hadn't seen for eight years.

Mark had driven from San Diego to Los Angeles after she called him at two in the morning and told him where she was. His was the only number she remembered.

He hadn't even asked what had happened, or why she had called him and not Sam or Jacob, he had just told her to stay put and he would be there as soon as he could.

She remembered the cold dread that gnawed at her stomach after she had hung up the phone. Running through story after story about what to tell him when he had shown up. And in the end, all of the stories had vanished the moment he asked what had  
happened and why she had run away from Jacob.

He hadn't even known that she had spent the last two years with Joyce in Sunnydale. And so it was after sending Angel to Hell and she had run away again after being kicked out of her home by her aunt, the woman she had called her mother for the past two years, that she had told that last member of her family the truth; that she was the Slayer. She told him about being Chosen, about Merrick, about Lothos, the dance, Jacob putting her into the institution, and Joyce pleading with him outside of her room to be given custody of her. 

Her eyes had begun to water as she continued to tell him about Jacob agreeing and Joyce adopting her. About her change of name and about Sam's call; he remained silent as she told him that she had refused Sam's tentative out reach to her the month after she and Joyce had moved to Sunnydale.

Her lip had begun to tremble as she told him about the Hellmouth and about the two years she had spent on it, about the vampires and demons. She had even told him about Angel, the only person she had loved, and who she had been forced to send to Hell because their love had cost him his soul. 

Buffy had remained silent for several moments after she finished, biting on her lower lip hard to stop the trembling, staring intently at the ground, and afraid to look up, fearing what she knew would be in her older brother's eyes after her admissions.

She had expected for him to think her crazy like Jacob and Sam had or to look at her with revulsion like Joyce had, but, he hadn't.

Instead he had just grabbed her and hugged her close.

Buffy couldn't remember how long they had stayed that way, her older brother holding her as her tears fell in torrents. And though he had left her in Los Angeles after she had refused to return to San Diego with him, he had been one to find her an apartment. She had never told any of the others that the jobs she had kept weren't just to pay for her and Dawn after Joyce had died, but, had also been to pay Mark back for all the money he had given her. Even though he had never cashed one check and even when times were at their worst Buffy had never touched the money that she still owed him and she never would.

He was the only that had ever accepted any of it, he hadn't even questioned her statements, and years later she had wondered why he had accepted it all so calmly, but, she had been afraid to ask, and still was come to think of it. For the moment, it was enough to know that no matter what he would always accept her.

Oh, how shocked he had been to hear that she had died and been resurrected; she had called him three months after the run-in with the demon Sweet. She hadn't been able to bottle it up any longer and having come out to her friends and Dawn the at the confrontation months before had only made everything worse. He had flow out the day after her call and spent a week with them, meeting everyone, and most of it he had spent being the annoying older brother that he was, but, it had still helped Buffy to begin her slow crawl back to feeling as though she were actually alive.

He had held her once again as she wept, the only person she had ever described heaven too. It had been the first time since she had seen him in Los Angeles all those years ago that she had allowed herself to think of him as her brother, not just her cousin.

Maybe that was why the monks had kept him in the memories that they had implanted.

Since her fifteenth birthday when Joyce had legally adopted her, Mark hadn't been her brother, he had been her cousin. The only other time since then that she had allowed herself to live any of her past life and remember the girl that she had once been.

He was the only cousin that Buffy had ever told Dawn about or ever meet.

Jesus. 

Sam.

Dear Lord, how was she going to explain any of it?

That Dawn had another older sister as well as an older brother?

That Joyce wasn't their mother?

How could Buffy make her understand how wonderful their true mother had been until that fateful day when her entire world had been broken and she had been taken away?

Buffy hadn't known at the age of six, seventeen years ago, that her life could be so utterly changed in a moments notice.

It wasn't a lesson that she would learn until her tenth birthday.

Mark... Mark wasn't around by then. He had left one spring night at the age of sixteen, two years earlier three days before her eighth birthday, after one more argument with his father, and it wouldn't be for another six years that Buffy would find him, the only person she had left to turn too after she had run away. The only link to her past that she had been willing to keep. 

Her father hadn't been home, it was just another birthday, one of many that he had been gone for. He was supposed to have been, but, had been called in once again the day before. He had promised he would just be half an hour, and half an hour had turned into an hour, which had turned into several hours.

By the morning of Buffy's tenth birthday, the three Carters knew that daddy wasn't going to make it home again. They had understood. His job was who he was.

He told them before he left that he remembered that he was supposed to take Sam to school that morning and drop her off for her field trip. Then they were supposed to have all gone to watch the science fair that her sister had been competing in. Sam had worked so very hard on her project and thinking about it, she remembered that Sam had won that one, just like she had the previous year's one and the one before that one too. But, Buffy had gotten sick the night before, and by time the next morning had come, Buffy was taken by a fever and wracking coughs.

They were still waiting when Jacob called at six thirty that morning, saying that he was sorry. Buffy remembered sitting on the couch, laying very still with Sam holding her hand, as they listened to their mother tell him that Buffy was sick and needed to go to the doctor. They listened as their parents planned for their mother to take Sam to school while daddy would come home to take Buffy to the doctor. But, he hadn't been home in time and when seven-thirty rolled around; Lillian Carter had bundled her two daughters up tightly and calmly packed the rest of Sam's science materials into the car before going back for Buffy, who she had carried out.

By eight in the morning of Buffy's birthday, her mother had dropped Sam off to school with a sick Buffy in the back and then headed to the hospital.

And between one second and the next, Buffy's world shattered.

She still remembered the scream of the tires and then the sudden jolt that had knocked her from one side of the back seat to the other, slamming her small body hard against the other door and causing her head to knock painfully against the window.

She could still hear her mother's scream as it was cut short. It had all happened so quickly.

Sometimes, Buffy couldn't remember if it had been her mother screaming or her. 

The only thing that she remembered with unerring clarity were those unseeing green eyes that stared up from the glass littered asphalt and the man who had dragged her mother out of the car making the sign of the cross before gently closing her mother's eye lids. 

She could still feel the pain in her throat from screaming out for her mother to wake up and she still remembered the scent of vanilla from the auburn hair of the woman who had carried her away from the wreckage and had murmured softly to her until the paramedics had come and taken her away to the hospital where she had waited for her father.

She hadn't been aware that thirteen years ago, at the age of ten, her world would end. She hadn't known that her family would fall apart; piece by piece until she was alone.

She still had to find that her father, already a man driven by his career, would find his only solace in work, abandoning his two daughters as he fled from his own grief. He had never been a man to show his feelings easily, Buffy could now see that, but, to a ten year old still mourning her mother, she felt abandoned.

And her sister...

Her brilliant older sister, eight years older and already more certain of her future then Buffy had ever been, her older sister had been pained to say the least, lost and unable to cope with the sudden loss of mother and father as much as her younger sister was able too. Her older sister who had turned to science and school as a way to cope with her own feelings.

And so she had been left alone, a ten year old girl who felt certain that if not for her, her mother would have never died. If she hadn't been sick, then her mother would never have been on the road to the hospital and the drunk driver would never been able to hit after he had run the red. 

Thirteen years ago, she hadn't been aware that one's world could crumble and disappear within the matter of moments. That everything she had believed in could be taken away between one heart beat and the next. That her world could shatter with such finality. But, she had been a fighter, and it wouldn't be until five years later, only months after her fateful fifteenth birthday that that girl would cease to exist.

That girl.

Elizabeth Anne Carter.

Elizabeth, but mommy always had called her Buffy. 

Buffy.

Oh, how her father had hated the name. But, Buffy had loved it because that was what her mother called her, and after that... that betrayal, that's what Buffy had done. She had erased her past and become some one knew.

Elizabeth Anne Carter had died when her remaining family turned away from her, leaving her alone in the asylum, for her 'own good' as they had told her. That innocent girl perished in there.

It had been too much for her and at fifteen having watched the only person that had cared for her being killed again by one of her mistakes had took a great toll on the young girl. Merrick had been like a father and even though she had only known him a short period she had come to love the devilish old man.

His death though, hadn't been that final strike. No, that final strike had been when she had returned home, only a month after that fateful night at the dance, and found out that fairy tales were only lies. That you couldn't just come home and everything would just magically be alright.

Oh, a part of her didn't blame them, not anymore.

After years on the Hellmouth, she had learned how people could turn a blind eye towards their surroundings and the truth.

Jacob had never been really close to his youngest daughter and she imagined that having the same daughter suddenly reappear after having been gone for over a month and then start talking about monsters had been a bit too much, especially with the whole burning down the gym thing.

And even Sam, the same Sam who had promised her younger sister to always be there for her no matter what, Buffy understood that Sam couldn't accept it any more then Jacob had been able too.

After all, Sam lived in a world of science and her world had no room for such messy unknowns as vampires.

But, there was still another part that could still blame them and did. There was still a little girl who had lost her mommy only to lose her sister and father as they dealt with their own grief and there was still a scared fifteen year old girl who had returned home only to be institutionalized by the same people that she had placed all of her hopes in.

And, yes, some one had walked out of that institution, but it wasn't Elizabeth Anne Carter, no, it had been, Buffy Summers, daughter of Joyce Summers.

The only damn thing that the monks had gotten right. She wasn't Elizabeth Anne Cater anymore, she was Buffy Summers.

A knock shattered her reverie, and Buffy rushed up so quickly from her seat on the bed that she stumbled forwards.

"Buffy?" Dawn's voice was muted through the thick oak of the door. "You ready?"

Buffy shook her head and picked up the blouse that lay crumpled on the floor. Quickly tossing it on, she ran a quick hand through the long blonde curls and opened the door.

Dawn frowned thoughtfully at her older sister and gave a startled cry as the Slayer suddenly pulled her forwards and hugged her tightly.

"Buffy... air...need...air..." Dawn gasped out and Buffy held her close for a moment longer before releasing the younger Summers and placing a gentle kiss on her cheek. "Are you ok?"

Buffy forced a smile and nodded, grateful the even though Dawn shot her another worried look, her sister didn't push the matter.

She couldn't tell her, not yet. There was so much. Too much to handle right now, maybe later. Much, much later.

"You ready?" Buffy asked, as she looped arms with her sister and at Dawn's nod, the two walked towards the stair case, both looking forwards to an afternoon alone together.

The Slayer couldn't remember the last time she had been able to just go out and relax for a little while with her sister, and even though she was looking forwards to the afternoon, a small niggling sense of foreboding kept bothering her.

She didn't understand why the monks hadn't implanted any memories of her real family when they had created Dawn and a small part of her was worried as to why.

As they made their way down the stairs and towards the newly replaced front door, Giles voice wafted from the other side of the house. "Buffy? I just received as call from Andrew in Los Angeles it seems that..."

Faith's voice suddenly broke in from upstairs as she sought to catch up to the blonde Slayer. "B, yo, we gotta do somthin' with Kennedy or I ain't gonna be responsible for killing her."

The two sisters shared a single look before Buffy grabbed Dawn's hand and the two ran laughing from the house, only pausing long enough for Buffy to grab her purse and keys from the table in the foyer.

Buffy knew that everything would have to be faced, more decisions would have to be made, and truths would have to be told, but, not right now. No, right now would just be her and Dawn.

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Well, I hope everyone liked the update. It didn't turn out how I originally planned and for all who don't know, Mark is Carter's older brother. I don't think they ever mention him in the series until later on, but, I figured I would go on and include him in. I already have a chunk of the next chapter written and it will deal with Daniel's discovery, just as a little spoiler.

Just wanna say thanks to the lovelies who've helped and prompted me along! And kisses to all of my reviewers.

Please let me know what you think; reviews make my day. As always, any questions, just send them all on in and I'll answer any that I can.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six 

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of either SG1 or BtVS.

Summary: After leaving her sister in a mental institution years ago, Sam Carter had thought she had gotten over Elizabeth Summers untimely death three years ago. But, when Carter's alternate self from another reality comes through the Quantum Mirror she hears that Dr. Samantha Carter's ( "I prefer Samantha, thanks") sister, though having died at a young age, had a wonderful life, a loving husband, and a supportive sister. The incident leaves Carter wondering, had she not abandoned her own sister, would the young woman still be alive? Or, at the very least, would she have died knowing that her sister had loved her? But, is her sister really as dead as she believes? Nah. After all, what would have happened if no one had informed Sam that her sister had been brought back to life a year after her death? And now with the Goa'uld inching closer and closer, secrets and misconceptions are ready to be brought into the light, whether any one wants them to be or not.

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Chapter Six  
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"Ok, so, what you are saying is that Carter had a kid sister who... uhhh," Jack trailed, frowning as the stubborn thought managed to elude his grasp; it was now running to day three on a total of seven hours sleep and while he would have managed it without problems ten years ago. . . well, that had been ten years ago, and now, his sleepy mind wasn't quite processing at it's normal speed, despite the copious amounts of coffee that he had been drinking since he had reached the archeologist's office. Only good thing was that, as far as Jack could tell, no one had picked up on his more then usual thickness, since the rest of his team was as tired as he was. Well, maybe not Teal'c, but it was always hard to tell with the big guy.

"I believe DanielJackson said they had become. . .," Teal'c cocked his head and an inquiring brow rose, "estranged?"

Daniel nodded; it had taken some time to explain to the Jaffa how family could fall apart so easily. It was true that the Jaffa's own family had not been on the best of terms following his desertion of Apophis, but, that was due to honor, not just because of what could only be described as a tragedy of errors.

"Yeah, that's it," Jack's voice was slightly slurred, but the other two ignored it; after all, at this point none of the others were speaking correctly any longer either. Midnight had come and passed several hours ago, and they all had stopped looking at the clock sometime around three, though the coffee had remained flowing well after that. "They became estranged, and then Carter got a letter telling her that her little sister had died... Wait a minute, how old would she have been?" 

Daniel's brow furrowed as he mentally counted. "Hmmm, Sam said they had stopped talking when her sister was fifteen. That would have been eight years ago, and she learned of her death three years ago, so… she would have been twenty."

"Twenty?" Jack's eyes darkened momentarily as remembered pain briefly flared in the brown depths before he smothered it. Charlie would have been 16 this year-- If she'd lived she would have only been eight years older then his own son; Charlie would have turned sixteen this year. Now both were dead before they could have even lived their lives. "God, that's young; okay, she died at twenty. It's unfortunate. However, I hardly think that Carter is really ready to talk about any of this." The Colonel said, attempting to regain more solid grounding; he had traveled down the roads of 'what if' far too many times. He still had trouble talking about his son's death, and it seemed his second in command was having the same difficulty. It was definitely one that he understood and would respect. But still, exactly why the space monkey had called him down for the late night pow-wow-- that was just annoying the hell out of him. "And, I still don't understand what all of this," Jack gestured at the mess surrounding them, "has to do with any of it?"

"Jack, I told you earlier." Daniel said wearily and leaned his head back against the counter door he was currently propped against. "When they had her committed, Sam's sister claimed to be something called 'the Slayer'. I had thought at the time that the name sounded familiar and I meant to research it earlier, but, due to one thing and another, I haven't been able to until now."

"And that means...?"

"Jack, do you ever pay attention to me when I talk?"

"Yep, sure do, all the time... hmmm, okay, normally not, but, only when you get into the geek speak, which is unfortunately nearly ninety percent of the time." A smile tugged at the corners of O'Neill's lips at the aggravated look on his friend's face as he spoke.

"Jack..."

"It's not my fault!" The defensive tone of the older man's voice only served to make the frown  
lines on the archeologist's brow deepen. 

"Jack, here, look," Daniel briefly lifted himself off of the floor, just enough to reach the mound of books above his head. Leaning upwards, he managed to grab a single book off of the cluttered counter space behind him, a little relieved that he hadn't caused it all to come down on top of him. Plopping back down, Jackson handed over the aged, leather-bound book, tapping lightly at one of the symbols near the top of the page. "I found this; it was in the last book, if you can believe that." Daniel ignored the look that Jack gave him at the statement and plowed ahead as the older man mumbled, 'I'd hope so, it looks like a library threw up in here'. "The passage describes an ancient warrior who was said to have fought the forces of darkness. Now, the interesting thing is that the passage also calls the warrior a 'she', even thought the name given has clear masculine intonations, and given the language this was recorded in, I..." The words trailed as Daniel looked up and caught the glazed look on the Colonel's face, "believe that it was written by the tooth fairy back in the thirteenth century." 

Jack's attention seemed to latch onto the last part and his gaze shot up. "The tooth fairy?"

"Jack, did you even pay attention to anything that I said before that?" 

"Uhhh..."

"Jack, have you ever heard of selective hearing?" The archeologist asked, and uttered a heart-felt groan as he buried his head in his hands when the Colonel only gave a confused 'huh?' in response.

O'Neill watched the younger man for a moment longer and smiled internally. It was priceless, just priceless, and making Danny bury his head in his heads three times in one hour. A new personal best.

"Ok, so maybe I was paying a little," he took one hand from the book and held the thumb and forefinger a hair's breadth apart from each other for emphasis, "a little bit of attention. But I don't understand how this applies to Carter's sister."

"Jack, the symbol!"

The Colonel looked down at the page that Daniel was talking about and couldn't tell one thing from another on the page. To him it all closely resembled, well, chicken scratchings. Maybe he had it upside down?

Maybe not.

After turning the book upside down and peering at it closely and then at arm's length, Jack decided that he still couldn't figure out which one Daniel was talking about.

"Daniel, the kid was, what? Fifteen when she started talking about all of this? You're telling me that there's some higher being out there that decided to make some fifteen-year old-- and a little girl at that, who probably weighed, like what, seventy pounds-- to be the champion of all that was good? Right."

Teal'c was sitting across from the two, an expression that could only be described as a smirk on his face as he amusedly listened to the two bicker.

Briefly his eyes flicked down to the page they were talking about before focusing back upon the two other men. The Jaffa 's gaze had wandered back up for only a moment before his eyes widened and he looked down again, disbelief evident in his eyes.

"Jack, all I'm saying is that there is the possibility that-"

"That what? Vampires exist? Next you're going to tell me that witches and werewolves exist as well." Jack shook his head, "It can't be. For Christ's sake, Danny, your breaking the code for the stargate disproved nearly all of the myths and legends out there. Just how many supposed gods have we come across?"

"Why?" The archeologist asked. "Why can't you admit that it's possible?"

"Because it's not. The bogeyman doesn't exist, Daniel, and there's no monster in the closet or under the bed."

"Why? Believing in the possibility of their existence is no different from believing that the pyramids were built by aliens."

Jack's mouth opened and then closed. He had him there.

Almost.

"Nope; that's because it's aliens. Hell, I meet a new alien every week; it'd be stupid to ignore their existence, but this," Jack snapped the book closed and tossed it down, both men were unaware of Teal'c, who picked it up with unsteady hands and hurriedly flipped through the pages to find the one he was looking for, "this is just... bedtime stories."

"You... you cynic!" Daniel exclaimed, astonished at his friend's lack of flexibility. 

"Dreamer."

"Neanderthal." 

"Geek."

Daniel opened his mouth to call the Colonel another name when he blew out a breath of air instead and tiredly rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.

"God, Jack, what are we? Five?" He mumbled.

"Right now, I feel more like ninety, and I've gone through those aches before, I know how it feels. I'm getting too old for these late-night gab fests."

"Maybe," Daniel drawled, tired, but not quite willing to give up just yet, "we should stop the discussion for right now and continue this tonight?"

Jack was just about to agree when Teal'c spoke.

"I recognize this symbol," the Jaffa said, looking up from the open book. 

"Huh?" The two said in unison. They had nearly forgotten about the other man in their bickering.

"I recognize this symbol, DanielJackson, O'Neill; it is from my childhood, and I have not seen it for  
many years." The Jaffa pointed carefully to the symbol that Daniel had pointed out only minutes earlier.

"Huh," Jack murmured, "you know, that one almost reminds me of something..." Now that they mentioned it, there was something. Now if he could just remember what it was.

"What?" Daniel asked.

Jack shrugged; there had been something, but, it had been years ago, a glance at a top secret file that had been open. And only for a moment, at that. What had that woman's name been? Doctor something or another... Welsh... Wash... Walsh? Either way, she'd been a pain in the ass. It'd been nearly five years ago, way before the Stargate and shortly after Charlie's death. He'd been at the Pentagon for a brief stop before going back to an empty home, and she'd walked into him. He'd been a gentleman and helped her pick up her stuff. Funny, but he only really now realized that she had never said thank you, just huffed out an impatient breath of air and stalked away.

"Nothing, I saw something like it, probably not even related. Anyway...uhhh..." Jack had glanced up from the page only for a moment to ask Teal'c where he had seen the symbol before, but the sight of the larger man made goose bumps rise on his arms. There was something off.  
Jack frowned, he couldn't quite figure it out. What was it? He didn't... 

Jack's eyes widened as he realized what was bothering him. 

"Teal'c buddy, you look a little less... golden then normal. You ok?"

"I am well, O'Neill, merely surprised. Of all the things that I had grown up with, this is truly the last thing I had ever expected to come across again." 

"Well?"

"Well, what, O'Neill?" 

Jack gave a dramatic eye roll and gestured at the book. "Well, where do you recognize it from?"

"Ahh, it is an ancient symbol, predating thousands of cycles before Ra's abandonment of this planet. It is a name for a creature whose prowess was never equaled, whom even the harbinger of death was unable to stop, and whose name when mentioned even now causes discomfort in many of the strongest and most courageous of Jaffa."

"So, what? You're telling us that it's like..." Daniel searched for the words and came up woefully lacking, "the Goa'uld equivalent of the boogeyman?"

"No, DanielJackson, the Roth'gari was no Goa'uld-- it was beyond the gods. There were numerous encounters between she and the Goa'uld masters, but no matter how many times she perished in battle, she always returned, again and again. Even burning her body and spreading the ashes was not sufficient to stop the regeneration, for she returned in a new form, always more powerful then before. And I am unfamiliar with the term 'boogeyman'; what is this?"

"Well," Daniel said, pausing as he tried to figure out how to explain the idea that Earth parents routinely scared their children into behaving with stories of 'be good, or something could eat you', "the boogeyman is a monster of imagination that people normally use to rein in their children's behavior."

Teal'c nodded in understanding. "Yes, then the Roth'gari is indeed the boogeyman. I remember many tales that my father related to me when I was a child, normally to coerce me into behaving for my mother, and I was often... discomfited by these stories. However, she is not merely a creature of imagination; the stories have been passed down through generations as part of the history of my people."

"Now, you say 'she'..."

Teal'c nodded to the unfinished question. "Yes, the Roth'gari always appeared in female form and always young, nearer to a child than a woman."

Daniel looked down at the page and then back at Jack who held up a hand. "What?" Jackson  
asked.

"Don't even say it."

"Say what, Jack?" O'Neill eyed Daniel's look of befuddlement with disgust. He'd seen him practice that look in a department store window one time when Sam had dragged them out to the mall; he knew that look, it was worse than his innocent one. 

"That you told me so," Jack let out a gusty sigh and turned back to Teal'c. "Okay, buddy, tell what you got, 'cause I gotta say, I just can't see how seventy pounds of fluff that you could probably break with your pinky finger could cause this much of a stir."

Teal'c leaned against the hard wood of Daniel's desk and thought back, remembering the stories that his father had told him as a child. "Well, you see, it was said from within the heart of the desert, a creature of great power and abilities emerged..."

Jack and Daniel settled back, getting as comfortable as they could sitting on the concrete floor of Daniel's office while they listened, not even paying heed as the clock chimed five o'clock in a darkened corner above them.

---- 

In a house thousands of miles away, Buffy stood silently before a closed door, her hand on the knob. She let out a little sigh.

Time.

Time was always the issue.

There were always so many things that had to be done, people that needed to be seen, groceries that needed to be bought, and lessons that needed to be taught.

Like now.

Buffy had spent far longer out with Dawn last night than she had meant to. The two sisters had remained out until well into the early hours of the morning, and by time they had returned back to the house, Dawn was peacefully asleep in the passenger seat of Buffy's Jeep.

The Slayer had sat there for some time, just thinking.

Wondering if she should just come clean, wake up Dawn, and just tell her; tell her everything. She had even reached out a hand and started to gently shake the sleeping girl.

However, as soon as those green eyes had opened and the moment that Buffy's name had passed those lips, all of the blonde's words had died on her lips. All that the Slayer had been able to croak out was that they were home.

And she even thought that Dawn had been about to say something, but she hadn't, and in the end neither had Buffy.

Now, here she was. Standing like some ghoul outside of her sister's room as she tried to make a decision.

"Hey, Buff, you coming?" Faith's voice ghosted from below and Buffy's hand fell from the door. 

Later, she promised herself.

Later she would tell her everything, but not yet. Not when she couldn't even face it herself without crying. Even after all of those years, she still cried when she remembered.

Walking down the stairs her gaze wandered over to Faith who stood by the door rubbing her shoulder, the hand dropping as soon as Faith caught the other Slayer's questioning look. 

"Hurt it yesterday," was all Faith said, shrugging into her jacket and managing to hide a grimace at the pain the movement caused her.

"Ahh, yes, the fight with Kennedy, right." Buffy smiled and nudged Faith, making sure to get the injured side, and the smiled turned into a grin at the glare that the brunette sent her. "So the big bad Faith got her butt whooped by the cocky young pain in the ass. Guess you're just getting old."   
Faith stopped in her tracks and stared at the other woman in disbelief.

"I didn't get my ass kicked by any one!" 

"Uh-huh, sure, that's why you're all 'I have a boo-boo'?" Buffy said in a mocking tone and tsked as she opened the front door, mentally counting. Five...four...three...two... 

There was a stunned silence and then she heard it; Faith threw her jacket on the floor. "Right, that's it, I'll show you injured." The dark-haired woman rolled her shoulders out of habit and frowned at the pain.

Buffy just grinned and ran out the door, quickly out-distancing Faith's indignant shout, and she heard her hurried run as she sought to catch up to her. She heard the other woman drawing close behind her and laughed.

Later, there was always later.

First, she and Faith had to do a bit of rough training on the girls, and the morning was looking up.

She hadn't managed to get under Faith's skin like this since she found out about the darker Slayer's liking for Menudo when she was younger. All she had had to do was put a Menudo song on one of her mixes, and she had watched as her friend had at first started humming to the song and then softly singing.

A hush had fallen over the room as they all listened and it had been the only time that Buffy had ever seen Faith blush as she realized that everyone had been listening to her.

Ahh, that had been a good day, payback for the other Slayer stealing her diary a few months back and trying to make photocopies of it for all of the young Slayers.

As the two ran past astounded-looking Slayers and disappeared into the woods behind the  
house, Buffy decided that this was a good day in all. Maybe her luck was finally changing.

------

Seven o'clock found the three men still sitting on the floor of Daniel's office. Daniel and Jack were propped up on their elbows, leaning in as Teal'c spoke. Both wore expressions of mingled disgust, horror, and, above all, fascination.

"And thus was the Roth'gari defeated; soon after, RA moved his ship and he did not have contact again with the warrior, for he was soon driven out by the Taur'i." 

"Whoa." Jack said, sitting up, and grimacing as his back protested the movement. The Colonel looked briefly uncomfortable. "Umm, that Rothamahougie person, when you were telling us that one about where she tore off the center of his manhood, you weren't talking about…"

The Jaffa only nodded, a pleased smile on his lips. It had been a long time since he had such a receptive audience. Daniel and Jack remained silent for several more moments.

"Huh," O'Neill said, his expression thoughtful, "wow."

"I agree, that was . . . incredible. It's amazing that the stories managed to remain so intact and unchanged through all of those years. I would have thought that they would have become grossly distorted over time." 

Jack sent Daniel a disbelieving look. "You mean that if you hadn't heard about it before, you would have taken Teal'c's stories about some little girl that managed to rip a system lord in two and defeated a handful of Jaffa on her own as not having been distorted?"

Daniel's lips pursed. "Maybe a little." 

"Maybe a lot." Jack corrected and looked at his watch. "Well, kiddies, looks like we just have time to get back to our own rooms and snatch about fifteen minutes of sleep before we need to be ready for the briefing. After we get back from PXQ-whatever, I suggest we meet back up and we'll discuss what to do about Carter." Jack meet Daniel's eyes; he could admit when he was wrong. "You were right, this is something that needs to be addressed. I just don't know how to tell her that her sister may have not been all that unbalanced. Plus, I can't think of anything that we can tell her that won't make any of us appear any less insane than we will be already sounding as we explain that some kid who probably weighed seventy pounds wet did a redition of David and Golith, the supernaturlal version."

"Bad choice of words there, Jack." Jackson said.

O'Neill shot a questioning glance at Daniel before his mouth dropped open, making a small 'o'. "Heh, yeah, forgot about the whole mental institution thing for a moment there."  
The three clambered to their feet, both Daniel and Jack far less gracefully than the Jaffa .

"Well, with that I will bid you two-"

Jack's words were cut off at the sudden knock on the door.

"Yes?" Daniel called. 

"Morning, Daniel, I just wanted to stop in real quick and talk... to... you..." Sam's words began to trail off as she looked up from the object in her hands and took in two things at the same time, the first of which was that Daniel's office was trashed and the second of which was that the other three members of SG1 had incredibly guilty expressions on their faces. "Okay, guys, what's going on?"

"What do you mean, Carter?" Sam looked at Jack as he asked the question and one of her eyebrows quirked. She knew that expression, it was the innocent look, the one that meant he was guilty of something.

"I mean that the three of you look like I just caught you pressing a red button." 

"One time. I push a button one time." Jack muttered under his breath.

"I believe you pushed the button three times, O'Neill," Teal'c murmured helpfully.

"Thanks for the reminder, buddy," Jack said and the Jaffa bowed slightly to him. "So, all talk of buttons aside, what do you have in your hands, Carter?"

Sam shot the Colonel another look but decided to go ahead.

After all, she'd just ask Daniel later. 

Three years of knowing the archeologist had made something incredibly clear, that he couldn't hold onto a secret under pressure for anything.

"Well, I was running tests on the rosh'nah last night and was about to dispose of the container that it had originally been stored in when I noticed something." Sam handed the small vial to Daniel and continued, "There's an etching on the inside. I almost thought it was just some scratch, but, looking at it, I realized that it was some kind of stamp-"

"Or emblem," Daniel said, drawing the vial closer, his brow furrowing. There was something familiar about the symbol. A memory tugged at the edge of his mind, the same sleep-fogged mind that had decided to become uncooperative. "I think-"

Daniel was once again cut off as there was another, louder knock at the door, and all four of the room's occupants turned towards the open doorway. A sergeant stood there and gave a sharp salute.

"Sirs," he said, including Sam into the greeting, "General Hammond requests that you all be present in the briefing room in thirty minutes."

"For what?" Jack asked, annoyed at the summons.

"I am unaware, sir, although I have been informed that after I leave here I will be going to retrieve  
Major Davis and escort him and his guest to the same room, sir," 

Jack nodded and waited until the sergeant had left the room before mumbling a curse under his breath.

"Great, another meet and greet." He said, and the other three all nodded in agreement; it was the third this month.

The higher-ups had decided to expand the stargate program as the threat of the Goa'uld had begun to increase, and since that decision had been made, there had been a procession of people through the top level of the Cheyenne base-- or at least that was how it seemed to SG1, even though, technically, the people they had met only numbered three.

It was still a pain in the ass; each time they had been pulled from a mission to do the meet and greet, and this would make the fourth. 

--------

Faith walked through the open kitchen door and trudged to the refrigerator, opening it with perhaps a little more force than required and then slamming it shut after she had grabbed the milk container.

"Hey, little D." Faith said as she glanced at Buffy's younger sister from the corner of her eye, and Dawn looked up, startled from her precarious perch on top of the kitchen stool from which she consequently slid off with a strangled squeak "So, whatcha up to?"

"Faith, what are you doing here? I thought everyone had gone out for a training session for the weekend!" Dawn quickly scrambled up, and her hand was only inches away from the folders she had been looking at when the brunette Slayer quickly plucked them up, a Cheshire cat grin tugging at the corners of her lips.

Faith shrugged and grimaced slightly at the movement when it pulled her still sore shoulder; chasing Buffy around, while fun, hadn't exactly helped it too much, and having Andrew fall from a tree branch that had been fifteen feet above her, only to land squarely on her back had made it worse.

"Got sent back. The shoulder's still giving me some problems, and with the whole crazy weather on top of that, and strange objects falling from the sky, namely geek boy, mommy B sent me back home to rest. So, here I am." Faith flipped open the folder, a look of interest on her face. "So, whatcha readin'? Somethin' all naughty? Or did you make a copy of Buffy's diary again? I've been wondering about that whole 'Chris Incident', but she grabbed her diary back last time I stole it before I could read anything good in it."

"Faith! No!" Dawn shouted as she attempted to retrieve the folders.

Faith easily escaped her grasp, tightening her grip on the manila folder; anything that made blondie's sister freak had to be interesting, especially given her flushed face. Perhaps it was some nud- 

Startled brown eyes shot up quickly from the page before her, a frown quickly replacing the smile as all merriment drained from her face.

"Dawn, what is this? Who the Hell is Elizabeth Carter?" Faith looked down again, scanning the page quickly and pivoting on her heel as she once again eluded the other girl's frantic grasp.  
Realization dawned upon her face, and Faith's frown deepened. "D, is this what I think it is? Buffy was adopted?"

Dawn groaned at the question and sat back on her stool, burying her face in her hands.

"Does she know you know?"

"No." Dawn replied, her voice muffled as she spoke.

"You gonna tell her anytime soon?"

Dawn looked up, a troubled look upon her face, and Faith placed the folder back down on the  
counter, moving instead towards her friend. "Yes." Dawn said, nodding, and then stopped. "I mean, no."

Dawn remained silent for a moment after she spoke before she sighed and looked into the chocolate brown eyes that were focused on her.

"I don't know. I found these files and some pics when I was unpacking. One of the photos was of Buffy and some other people, and, Faith, I told her about it and showed it to her, and she freaked. Totally shut down. I'm afraid of what she'll do if I show her the folders; I can't take it if she goes all despondent again. I can't. Plus, what if this family cared for her and loved her? What if they're all dead or something and she misses them? I don't want to bring up all those bad memories again." Dawn's eyes grew troubled. "I mean, they have to be dead, right? Or else the monks would have given me memories of them? They have to be." Dawn's thoughts turned inwards as a new troubling thought occurred to her. "Surely if they were alive, the monks would have put them in the memories, right? And Buffy wouldn't have hidden them. Right?"

Faith moved forwards and put a comforting arm around the thin shoulders. "Nah, I'm sure they're probably dead. I mean, hell, B would have had to have seriously been burned by them if they weren't. Look at all the shit I've put her through all these years, and she still talks to me. What could be worse than a killer who tried to kill one boyfriend and stole her body to bang her other boy toy? And that's not even mentioning all the other crap I've done to her through the years." Dawn gave a weak grin, and Faith continued, "After all, seems like the only real hang-up the Blondie has is abandonm-" 

Faith's words trailed off and she flipped open the folder again, realizing something incredibly important that she hadn't quite picked up on before. Dawn's gaze wandered over to the open page and her eyes widened. She hadn't made it that far, she had barely opened the file before Faith had surprised her, and she'd spent most of the morning looking through the pictures that she'd hidden from Buffy. "Shit, it's signed by a Jacob Carter..."

Dawn read the words below and her heart twisted; in her mind she could see once again the look of hurt and despair on Buffy's face as she and other others had kicked her sister out of her own home that night almost a year ago now.

"Jacob Carter, relationship: father." Dawn finished the statement and looked into equally troubled eyes. "If he signed the adoption papers, that means..."

"Yeah, that means the bastard left her; look, mother deceased." Faith nodded, her eyes darkened and the frown line between her brows deepened.

Faith had always thought that Buffy's life had been cream, aside from the whole demonic boyfriend thing, and she had envied the other Slayer. In fact, that belief had been a large part of the reason why Faith had once hated the other girl.

The golden princess had possessed everything that Faith herself hadn't had, and now, to learn that she had been wrong, that Buffy had been abandoned by her own parents when she had been younger . . .

Shit, that meant it had only been a year after that that Faith had meet her. The darker Slayer wondered how the other had managed to bottle everything up so tightly; she'd never even guessed at Buffy's pain. 

Damn. Now she felt really guilty. Poor kid, parents abandon her, she dies, boyfriend turns evil, spends a year caring for him in secret after he comes back from hell and is shunned by her friends, and then has Faith try and kill him. Now she could understand why Buffy didn't hesitate to stab her. Guess they shared more than she had ever really thought.

Damn, damn, damn.

"So, he abandoned her. Just like we did." Dawn's voice was numb with the guilt that was sweeping over her. She had felt bad enough -- not only that night, but nearly every day since then. Buffy had told them that she never wanted to talk about them kicking her out again, but, the event played over and over in Dawn's mind constantly, and from the matching expression on the other Slayer's face, she had a feeling that Faith was experiencing something similar. "Faith..." The Slayer looked up from the page, and Dawn took in a deep breath, almost afraid to voice the thoughts that lay on the tip of her tongue, "do you think they are still alive?"

The Slayer only looked at her with equally disturbed eyes, and Dawn nodded; Faith's silence was answer enough; she did.

------- 

"We get pulled from going on a mission to PXQ-123, or where ever it was, to meet some guy, and then he's late!" Jack griped.

He and his team had already been sitting, waiting impatiently, for ten minutes, and from the lack of hearing boot soles from the hallway outside, it appeared that they would be waiting a while longer yet.

"I think I have it." Daniel said softly, and three sets of eyes looked at him. "What?" He asked, when he looked up.

"You have what?"

"Huh?" 

"Daniel, you said you thought you had it. You. Have. What?" The Colonel said, his patience already running thin. 

"Oh, the emblem. It seemed familiar, but, I couldn't recall why. I have a friend who-"

"You have friends?" Jack asked, his expression slightly hurt. "And you never told me about them?"

"Jack, this was four years ago. I haven't talked to him since I was contacted for the Stargate program." Daniel sighed at his friend's mournful expression, "Look, I met him while I was attempting to tell the world that aliens built the pyramids. He sat in for one of my lectures, and we talked about it afterwards. He was the only one who actually thought I might have had something. Hell, he was the only one who encouraged me, and I'm happy he did. I'd been ready to quit the whole thing, but I didn't after talking to him. A few months after I had met him, Katherine sat in on one of my lectures, and you know the rest. Besides, I can't even find him anymore; he was headed back to Tibet last time I spoke to him, and that was right after I had cracked the symbols. He was actually the one that gave me the book-" Daniel shut his mouth quickly and darted a nervous glance at Jack.

"What book?" Carter asked, catching how the level of discomfort had just risen.

"O'Neill persuaded me to watch a movie, CaptainCarter, and though the movie was uninteresting, I wondered how such a simple name could instill not only derision but fear. DanielJackson was kind enough to loan me a book on the particular creature that he had in his library." Teal'c said.

"Oh. What was the name of the movie?" She asked in idle curiosity.

"'The Boogeyman', CaptainCarter." Daniel choked on the sip of water he had been taking, and the Jaffa leaned over, thumping him on the back. 

"Thanks," he managed to rasp out.

"Sounds interesting. Maybe I can take a look when you're done?"

Daniel nodded, and Teal'c inclined his head at Carter's question. Jack gave a pointed look at the archeologist who shrugged uncomfortably. 

"So?"

"Huh?"

"Your friend, for Christ's sake," Jack exclaimed, "what was his name?"

"Oh, Oz. I don't even know where he is, anymore. I mean, it's been four years now. I may not even be able to find him, but he used to wear this charm that had a symbol on it that was incredibly close to the one on the inside of the rosh-" 

The sound of someone clearing their throat caused everyone to stop and four sets of eyes focused on the now full doorway.

Major Davis stood there with another man whom Jack could have only described as a good old boy.

Hell, he could practically smell the farm dirt still behind the kid's ears, and the fresh crisp look of his uniform and even fresher face -- which looked young enough to still be in high school -- only made the older man feel, well, older. Jack had to urge to hate him on sight, just for being so spiffy this early in the morning.

Davis opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, the younger man beat him to it. "I don't suppose you mean Daniel Osbourne?" He asked, smiling a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"How did you know?" Daniel asked, frowning.

"And who the hell are you?" Jack added.

"Major Riley Finn, Initiative, sir." Riley gave a snappy salute, and O'Neill glared at the younger man; he was starting to not like him. Riley turned his attention back to the archeologist. "Let's just say it was a good guess. And," Riley said as he sat down, "I happen to know where he is. Plus, if it's something to do with the supernatural-"

"Who said anything about the supernatural?" Jack barked out, and Carter shot a questioning glance at her superior officer.

"No one, sir," Riley amended. "But, Daniel Osborne is knowledgeable in the field, and we have used him as a... specialist before."

"You used someone who knew about ghosties as a specialist?" Jack asked, incredulous. "Just what the hell is the Initiative?" He demanded, leveling a glare at the too calm man.

"I don't believe I said he was a specialist in 'ghosties', sir" Finn said smoothly, giving another mirthless smile, one that made the Colonel think that the younger man was laughing at some joke no one else knew. "I am not allowed to debrief you, sir, until after my acceptance into the Stargate program."

"I'll just get your files, then." O'Neill shot back, his voice cold.

Riley picked up a briefcase and opened it. "I thought you might, sir, and so I brought them along with me." Riley passed out the papers, and Davis came to sit beside Jack, sighing quietly; this wasn't going the way he thought it would.

"What's all this?" Jack asked as he opened the folder and started flipping through pages,   
"Everything is blacked out; hell, even your name is blacked out!"

"Yes, sir, my entire experience has been with the Initiative, and the pentagon has had to classify all of my records for that reason."

Jack looked at Finn, interest in finding out what the hell was going on conflicted with a sincere dislike of the young man.

"We'll discuss that all later," Hammond said from the doorway. Everyone stood, and Jack gave a slightly sloppy salute. "As you were. Well, I see we won't have to go through introductions, then."

"Actually, sir, we only really know Major Finn's name." Daniel said, still flipping through pages of blacked out paragraphs.

General Hammond gave the assembled people a questioning glance and wrote something down, frowning at the people assembled before him when he looked back up. "Well, I'm sure that you will all have ample time to get to know each other. Major Finn is joining the SGC as of today. He will have his own SG team made up of candidates from the Initiative. I want a list by 1300 on your choices, Major Finn." 

The General's face remained more staid then normal and the SG1 team shifted in their seats, they had known Hammond for some time now and he was normally not this closed off unless he was really unhappy with something.

"Yes, sir," Riley said. 

"Now, you all know that we've been looking for people to help build up earth's defenses. After that last episode with Apophis the president has become very uncomfortable. However, we just don't have any good candidates outside of the military," Finn opened his mouth and the General shot the man a quelling glance. "Listen, Major Finn, I've read enough on the Initiative to know that I don't like it and if I had my way, you'd have already been off of my base. Oh, I've seen enough of your file to know that your a straight arrow, and your current comander has given you high praise, but you can't remain with something like the Initiative and not be changed, perhaps for the better, perhaps for the worse. However, it isn't my decision and the President has also informed me that he doesn't want this to be a solely military-run operation." Everyone looked in surprise at the general at the last part.

"Sir, I don't think anyone outside of the military has had that much combat experience or training,"  
Carter said slowly.

"Actually," Riley said, drawing the word out, "I may know of a certain group that has the training. It's convincing them to join that would be the problem."

"Don't like the military?" Jack asked and Finn nodded.

"You could say they had an... unfavorable run-in with... some operatives a few years ago." 

Everyone waited expectantly for elaboration, but none was forthcoming, and even a glare from O'Neill was unable to elicit anything more than a raised eyebrow from the youth.

"Very well then, when you hand me your list of choices later, Major Finn, I also want a contact list for this group, as well as the reason why you believe they would be so reluctant."

Riley opened his mouth and shut it again at the look the general gave him. 

"Don't even say it's classified, son. I can make it declassified, just get me the information." Everyone watched as Hammond left, then Major Davis looked around and nodded to everyone.

"Well, it looks like I am now needed elsewhere," he said, and took his leave, following after the general.

Riley shifted in his chair as four sets of eyes suddenly focused on him. Standing, he snapped his briefcase closed and saluted O'Neill. "Sirs," he said, "if you'll excuse me, it seems I have a list to compile." An airman materialized at the door and escorted him out. Four sets of eyes watched and waited until he had left.

"Anyone ever wonder why Major Davis is always the one who brings visitors to the mountain?" Daniel asked thoughtfully.

"I don't like him." Jack said finally.

"Well, I'm guessing you mean Major Finn and not Davis, Jack, unless you still haven't paid him that twenty from poker night a few weeks ago, but," Daniel said, "Jack, you've known him all of five seconds, how can you not like him?"

"I agree with O'Neill, there is something untrustworthy about MajorFinn." Teal'c said in agreement with the graying-blond man

"I don't know, he's kind of cute, in a puppy-dog kind of way, especially with that little scar he has." Sam said. "What?" she asked, as she realized that all three men had now shifted their gazes towards her. "Well, he is." Sam sat back in her chair, crossing her arms defensively; she hadn't been aware that she'd said that aloud. The captain realized that it was times like these that she wished there was another woman on the team.

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Hope you all liked the update.

Please review!

Thank you for reading!!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: The same one applies as all the rest of the chapters I've put up o far; I don't own anything of either SG1 or BtVS

Summary: After leaving her sister in a mental institution years ago, Sam Carter had thought she had gotten over Elizabeth Summers untimely death three years ago. But, when Carter's alternate self from another reality comes through the Quantum Mirror she hears that Dr. Samantha Carter's ( "I prefer Samantha, thanks") sister, though having died at a young age, had a wonderful life, a loving husband, and a supportive sister. The incident leaves Carter wondering, had she not abandoned her own sister, would the young woman still be alive? Or, at the very least, would she have died knowing that her sister had loved her? But, is her sister really as dead as she believes? Nah. After all, what would have happened if no one had informed Sam that her sister had been brought back to life a year after her death? And now with the Goa'uld inching closer and closer, secrets and misconceptions are ready to be brought into the light, whether any one wants them to be or not.

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Chapter Seven  
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"How about dinner?" Daniel asked, rubbing his head wearily. He was now running on day three with almost no sleep and while last night had been productive in finding out about the Slayer, he missed his bed almost more then he missed his coffee pot at home.

Across from him two sets of brown eyes shared a look and Daniel's two companions shrugged in unison.

From his spot, Jack shifted in the mess hall's plastic chair and took another bite of the Cheerios he was silently chewing.

Beside him, Teal'c sat in contemplation.

"I still do not understand the need for this 'cushioning of the blow'," the Jaffa said as he picked up a piece of un-buttered toast from the pile infront of him. He looked at it curiously for a moment before leaning forwards and taking the coffee pot from the middle of the table. Tossing the lid onto the table Teal'c dipped the dry toast piece in and took a bite before picking the coffee container up and taking a large gulp of the scalding hot liquid as both Daniel and Jack stared in surprise; Teal'c smiled at their incredulous looks.

"Teal'c…" Jack started.

"Wasn't that…." Daniel began simultaneously and then shook his head, stopping himself.

He knew it had been hot; it'd taken a third of the milk Jack had gotten for his cereal before the archaeologist had been able to dink the coffee without scalding his own mouth.

"Right. The…cushioning the blow. It's something of an Earth custom I suppose. When...huh... I guess, well, sometimes when someone has something of a sad nature to tell another person they try to break the news gently to the other person. Perhaps take them out to dinner, give a small present that they would enjoy. Something that makes receiving the news somehow softer."

Teal'c's expression still remained puzzled and he looked at Jack who in turn pushed his bowl away and sat back in his chair. "Think of it like giving a condemned prisoner a last meal."

The Jaffa nodded in understanding and Daniel sighed. Trust Jack to compare breaking the bad news to Sam as a death sentence. However, Teal'c's response had Daniel wiping his face.

"I believe I understand, then. We are attempting to salve the guilty consciences we have from keeping secret our knowledge of MajorCarter's sister from her and from the need to break the ill tiding to her then."

Jack, who had just taken a sip of his drink, began to choke at Teal'c's words, and the juice was expelled in an orange mist as it sprayed from his mouth.

Daniel flinched and took off his glasses, calmly wiping his face of the liquid as he stood and walked around the table to pound the still coughing Colonel on his back.

"Teal'c, buddy," Jack finally rasped as he began waving Daniel away, "warn me before you say something like that."

"I apologize, O'Neill," the dark man said, "I was unaware you had such a difficulty with imbibing liquids."

Teal'c's eyebrow rose at the glare Jack sent him and the Colonel wondered just how much the Jaffa understood about everything. There were times, very seldom, when he felt the taller man understood more than he let on. Not often, just sometimes; like now.

Daniel stifled a yawn and rubbed his eyes again, not even bothering to clean his glasses properly. There would be time later on, like in about fifteen minutes before he and the others had to go and finish getting ready for their mission, the same mission that was scheduled to depart in about two hours. The mission that had already been pushed back by five hours due to the meeting with Major Finn and all of the delays were beginning to take their toll.

Trying unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn, Daniel thought back to the quiet and annoyingly mysterious major. At this point, the last thing Jackson needed was another puzzle to figure out. Major Riley Finn.

Major Finn.

Sam.

Sam's sister.

Dinner.

"Dinner?" Daniel asked again, the word barely more then a whisper as he leaned forwards and rested his head on his arm, his eyes drooping as he waited for a reply.

"Dinner." O'Neill rolled the word around his tongue. "Sounds good." Jack looked over at the archaeologist and smiled at the younger0 man. Daniel sat across from him, his head resting on his forearm, dipping down slightly, and snoring softly.

"Teal'c?" The Jaffa opened his eyes and Jack sighed; everyone seemed to be falling asleep on him today.

"Yes, O'Neill?"

"Poke him, will ya?"

Teal'c nodded and stood, silently stalking towards his prey. There was no other way that the Colonel could describe it. He was pretty sure that he'd seen the same expression on one of the big cat shows from the animal channel.

Teal'c leaned over the slumbering man and poked him, once, and very softly. The next poke was a little harder and faster. As was the next one, and the one after that, and the one after that. After a couple of moments and a couple of sympathetic winces from Jack, when he was certain that the archaeologist was going to have a couple of bruises, the Jaffa straightened back up, and shrugged before moving back to his own chair.

The colonel sighed again and managed to stifle a yawn, settling deeper into his chair. O'Neill leaned back and rubbed his eyes. What to do? What to do? On one hand, he could try and wake up the Space Monkey; however, he didn't think that the archaeologist would appreciate a pitcher of cold water over his head. Okay, option two, find a way to get the archaeologist back to his room. Decisions, decisions.

Jack just opened his eyes when he caught something streak through the air, disappearing down the back of the collar of Daniel's shirt. O'Neill had just opened his mouth to ask what that had been when Daniel suddenly sprang up, eyes wide, and yelped. Struggling out of his seat, the younger man danced around, his hands grabbing frantically at the material.

O'Neill looked on in curiosity, wondering what the hell had happened when Daniel suddenly straightened and tossed something on the table. Jack leaned forwards and moved his empty bowl over to get a look at whatever all the fuss had been about.

Huh, ice.

Still standing, Daniel's eyes darted between the Jaffa and the Colonel, his eyes finally coming to rest on Jack. Daniel's frown deepened, an accusatory expression on his face, and Jack started to raise his hand in denial, when he glanced at the Jaffa and let out a bark of laughter.

Teal'c sat silently in his chair, the familiar look of stoicism on his face, and one hand raised; a single finger pointed in Jack's direction.

Why that…!

Jack smiled as he looked up at the younger man. "So, dinner. I heard about this new place in town…."

Daniel sat back down, tucking the tail of his shirt back into his waistband as he did so.

The three sat for a while afterwards, discussing plans for the next night. The conversation stopped occasionally as it was punctuated by yawns.

Every so often, Daniel would frown at Jack, shifting uncomfortably as the large wet spot on the back of his shirt touched his skin, he never even noticed the small smile on Teal'c's lips. The very same smile that magically disappeared every time the archaeologist's eyes flickered upon its owner.

Two days later, it seemed that everything had changed on the base. Of course, to the General, his base always seemed a little quieter without the premiere SG team there.

Hammond hung up the phone and his gaze fastened on the room's only other occupant. "So, you're telling me all of this is true?"

Riley nodded and did his best not to squirm under the General's gaze.

It had taken the Hammond only one day to manage to get the files declassified enough for him to read them, though they were, at the President's request, to remain strictly confidential.

For several moments the only sound in the office was the clicking of the ballpoint pen in Hammond's hand. Finally the General dropped it and leaned back, thoughtfully regarding the young man before him.

So many things to have happened in this man's life, it was almost hard to believe.

Almost, but not quite.

It did, how ever, explain how Major Finn had been able to attain his ranking so quickly. Finn was by no means the youngest man to have ever reached the rank of Major, but the Major was certainly the youngest Hammond had ever met. After seeing that the Major had been one of a handful of survivors from his original company, Hammond could only assume that a great deal of Finn's rank was due to field promotion.

Leaning forward, Hammond glanced at the file still open on his desk and then at the young man sitting before him.

He disliked having sent Major Davis to Cleveland knowing so little of the people Finn had suggested they consult outside of the group's address, but time was of the essence. Briefly he wondered how the SGC's Pentagon liaison officer was doing and was certain that Davis was still trying to become used to the civilian clothes Finn had suggested he wear to the initial meeting.

Though after what he had read, the General now understood why the other Major had said that those people had a mistrust of the military.

Given what he had just finished reading, the General would have as well. However, he had other thoughts that quickly stole his attention. What to do with the man before him and the members of the team he had requested, as well as the missing members of SG1.

Granted one day late for the premiere team was becoming standard, or at least of late. Eventually he'd have to get a babysitter for the team. Even though after three years he had found SG1 surprisingly resilient and one of the longest lived teams under his command, Hammond was still slightly worried that one day there would be something that they were going to be unable to handle.

And now that SG1 was nearly fourteen hours overdue for checking in, Hammond was beginning to wonder just how many of his worries were becoming realities.

"Damn," Davis said as he looked at his surroundings. According to the map he was holding in his hands and the GPS unit on the dashboard Davis was most definitely lost.

No question about it.

Granted, it didn't help that for nearly an hour the GPS had been telling him that he was at his destination, which was across town from where the map said he was supposed to be, and which also happened to be nowhere near where he was according to the sign on the corner of the street he was on.

He could honestly say he had no idea where he was.

"'Think of it like a vacation Major…'" Davis mumbled under his breath as he retraced the path he thought he had taken, " 'oh, and make sure not to look like your in the military'," his voice rose to a falsetto, "'they mistrust the military and I can't tell you why. It's classified.'" Davis threw the map into the back in disgust. "When I get back, I'll show him classified. Of course, that's if I can ever get out of here."

"Shit." For a moment there was silence and then several soft thumps as he hit his head on the steering wheel.

What was sad was that this trip was the closest thing he'd had to a vacation in… nine years.

Nine years.

God, that made him feel old.

Nine years. Spent constantly working. Hell, he felt more comfortable in his uniform than he did in the jeans that Major Finn had suggested he purchase; plus, he still felt like he should be wearing a button-up shirt with a tie over the white tee he had on. He felt naked. He felt vulnerable. He didn't like it.

It had been a long time since he'd felt that way.

Damn.

It'd been nine years since he'd felt that way; in fact, it had been on his last vacation while he had been on a short break before he was to be reassigned as a liaison to some small and unknown project. One he'd never heard of before, except in muted whispers at the highest levels; the Blue Book a.k.a the Stargate program...

Nine years, it was amazing how things had changed.

Nine years had seen him promoted to Major, had seen him meeting people from all over the world, as well as the galaxy. But nine years had also seen him lose the two people he had ever cared for; the two had died seven years ago, and he could recall with perfect clarity the pain of learning the Buffy had died only weeks after Pike's death.

Pike. His brother, the younger brother who'd been every bit of a rebel that Davis had never been. The other… the other a young girl he'd known for only a couple of weeks, but in that short time she'd become the little sister the two brothers had never had.

It had been amazing.

Leaning back in the seat, Davis' head slipped back enough to rest against the soft leather, and a sad smile touched his lips.

Nine years.

For a moment he allowed himself to remember; he'd changed so much in that last few years--Davis had made himself change. After losing his brother and finding out the Buffy had died as well, Paul had given up, well, everything he supposed. He'd never had time for relationships before and after Buffy and Pike's death, he didn't want the experience of losing some one close to him again.

His family had been all he'd had, the trio had been a mismatch. One recovering junkie, a career oriented military officer, and one very confused young girl who'd been on the brink of giving up. It was strange how much the three of them had just clicked. Davis couldn't recall feeling more at home with any one than he did with Pike and Buffy. And now, both of them were gone. They had left him on his own. Alone as he had been for most of his life.

Well, maybe not quite. In a way O'Neill and his team had become the only people that Davis thought of any longer as with whom he could actually enjoy spending time with.

The team, how ever, came no where close to being anything other then just casual acquaintances; he doubted that in the three years he had known them that he had seen any of them outside of anything work related.

As he sat there in contemplative silence, Davis allowed himself to wonder what it would have been like had his brother not died, had that waif thin girl not died and the thought made him smile. He remembered seeing her for the first time, Pike had been trying to get her to eat, and he recalled the playful tone that his brother had used on the fifteen year old girl. The tone had been incredibly similar to the one that Davis had used on Pike when they were children and his younger brother was being his normal stubborn self. Davis had almost expected him to start making choo-choo noises.

The Major's gut clenched in sudden pain at the recollection, God, she had only been seventeen when she'd died, only two years after he had meet her.

Seventeen; she hadn't even had time to live. At least Pike had been able to experience so much more, especially in his final two years of life. Being in the Air Force had changed Davis' little brother almost as much at Buffy had. The difference in Pike had been incredible that last Christmas the two brothers had spent together before Pike's death, and, even after all these years, Davis could recall with perfect clarity Pike's funeral. He still remembered standing there in that small cemetery, listening as the preacher read from the bible; a steady stream of stale platitudes that he'd not even paid attention too. The cemetery empty except for Davis, the preacher, and two other men from his brother's unit.

Davis remembered the sense of loss as he watched the men gently fold the flag from atop Pike's casket before offering it to him. It was that moment that Davis realized he'd yet to call Buffy. To let her know that Pike had died, he was still too numb from the news himself. And it was in that moment that he'd made the decision. He would go out and take her the flag. After all, he could think of no better place for it to rest then with the girl who had helped his brother straighten out.

The decision to go and see her had been made with barely a moment's thought and on the plane ride, he was surprised at not only his sudden action, but also how much he missed the quiet days spent two years ago when his brother had returned home after so many years of running away. Buffy was, after all, the only other person his brother had ever cared for. It'd only taken a couple of hours and then he was standing on those porch steps, feeling guilty that he hadn't even been keeping in touch with her in the two years since he'd last seen her. Davis had tightened his grip on the single bag he carried; his one and only luggage in which the folded flag had been placed carefully inside.

It hadn't even been a question as to whether to give it to her or to keep it. It was hers, had it not been for meeting her, his brother could have been dead on an overdose years ago.

He'd never even dreamed that when he had arrived in that little town that she had passed away as well.

He shouldn't have been as surprised as he had been to learn of it. His knock had been met with silence for several moments and he remembered the pain of realization he had felt when the door was opened by a red-eyed woman; Davis had only been able to assume she had been Buffy's mother, the blonde hair was the same color, and perhaps a little of the build, but past that, Buffy shared no other characteristics with the woman in the doorway. However, Davis barely had any time to really pay her any real attention because as soon as he saw her the tears grabbed his immediate attention. The tears still on her cheeks from her crying and in that moment Davis had barely been able to say Buffy's name.

Davis had thought that his heart couldn't hurt any more then it did already because of Pike's death, he had been wrong, so very wrong. As Buffy's mother stood in front of him, the tears in her eyes, those eyes that were still red and puffy from crying, and told him that her daughter was gone before firmly shutting the door in his face, he felt his heart break.

God, how young she had been only just seventeen if he remembered right, only a junior in high school.

Buffy had died. Just like Pike.

In the space of two weeks he'd lost the only two people he had ever allowed himself to really care about.

He should have expected it. He knew about her secret. Hell, he'd even demanded to know it. After seeing the two in the kitchen, Paul had grudgingly allowed the Pike and the girl to stay. It had been in the middle of the night and Davis had decided to wait until morning to start with the questions. He hadn't seen Pike for over seven years at that point and seeing not only his brother, but a thin slip of a girl, just siting in his kitchen eating, Paul had been surprised. But not as shocked as the next morning when he saw the news that the tired girl who was at that particular moment sleeping in the guest room was wanted for questioning in an incident which had left several injured and her school gym burned down two days before their arrival.

He'd demanded the truth right then and there and he'd followed Pike as they went to wake the petite blonde. It had taken a short while and had Davis not been so shocked by the news story, he would probably have felt bad for waking her. She had seemed so exhausted the night before. After she had woken though and found out about the news, Buffy had only sighed sadly and started her story; Davis was only able to sit in stunned silence as they told him.

They'd told him about everything. The "creepy old dude" as she had put it. The vampires. How his brother's friend had been turned and how the girl's self appointed teacher had saved him from having suffered a similar fate. How the old man had begun her training, how he had tried to instill in her the responsibility that she bore, and in the end, how the old man, Merrick she had called him, had sacrificed his life for hers.

Pike had taken up the story then as the small blonde girl had begun to weep. He started telling him about her decision to stay and fight. How he had tried to get her to run, but she wouldn't. And then finally he told Davis about the fight, the vampires that had swarmed the dance and how every one there had been forced to fight or die while she had faced their leader alone.

Davis had sat in stunned silence. Tempted to call the cops and get both of them out of there.

And had his brother's eyes not been clear, had his hands not been steady, instead of shaking from withdraw because of the drugs that he had been using since his sixteenth birthday, Davis would have. He would have. However, Pike had been clean and that had been more than enough reason to trust the two in Davis' eyes.

All because of the small slip of a girl that had been sitting beside the Pike as the story tumbled out of them, her hand clutching Davis' brother's hand so tightly. Buffy. Such a strange name for such a strong person.

And here they were both dead.

Pike died serving his country seven years ago at the age of twenty -five, Buffy hadn't even made it to her seventeenth birthday.

Nine years since he had seen both of them together. Nine years since Davis had really allowed himself to live.

Nine years that had seen Davis lose the only two people he had ever been able to call family. Incredible how she had come to mean so much to the two brothers in such a short period of time.

Sighing wearily Davis rubbed his eyes and took the GPS system down. The parking lights on the SUV turned off as he put it into gear and turned around. There had been a little gas station a few miles back, same place he had bought the map. Maybe they knew where the…what had Finn called it? Oh, yes. The Watcher's Council. Maybe some one there would know the directions to find the damned place.

Huh. The Watchers Council. Strange name for a place that trained top of the line fighters. Briefly, Davis wondered just what it was that Finn hadn't told them.

Buffy stared at the trail before them. Had anyone told her two years ago she'd be living in Cleveland guarding a new Hellmouth and training new Slayers she would have laughed, but not as much as had they told her that she would also be living in a mansion on whose ground contained five miles of forested land.

In a way, she got one of her dreams. She lived in a mansion; however, she doubted the little girl she had once been would have been exactly thrilled by this though. She remembered her dream, she would have lived in a mansion on a hill, she'd have had a husband, and a daughter. She'd have a life. She never would have dreamed that she would have had to share her bathroom with three other women while the rest of the renovations were being completed.

How things changed.

Beside her Andrew chattered. Every so often she nodded or made a murmur of agreement, but she wasn't paying attention. Even the girls trailing behind them didn't dominate her thoughts, a first since she had taken them out yesterday. She had seen how the girls had started drifting apart after the battle with the First, how the newer Slayers had difficulty being accepted by the older girls, and she'd decided to take them out, force them into being a team.

Okay, she'd been expecting Faith's help, but she thought she'd done well on her own, and now, in the relative silence of their trek back to the mansion, her mind was on something else.

Buffy's mind was preoccupied with decisions; decisions made and decisions yet to be made. How many decisions had she made to bring her here today? What would have happened had Pike come in with her that night all those years ago when she had returned home? Would her family have believed her if she had someone there that could have supported her story?

Someone like Pike. She still thought of him, even after all these years. She imagined him out there some where, enjoying a beach, far away from the supernatural. At least one of them had managed their dream. She even thought of his brother sometimes.

It was amazing but in those two weeks that they had all spent together, the two brothers had become more of a family to her then her own family was.

Family….

Buffy thought about the picture Dawn had found. Perhaps it was time to come clean. She didn't want to hide anymore and she really didn't like keeping things from Dawn.

That was it. When she got back she'd tell Dawn everything. It was time. Hell, it was past time.

Beside her Andrew kept glancing back at the girls trailing behind them.

"Buffy?" He asked nervously, fiddling with his camcorder. "Buffy, they keep looking at you." He said for the third time and Buffy nodded.

The younger man tightened his grip and started to walk a little faster. The young Slayer's weren't looking to happy, especially since the older Slayer had managed to not only beat the entire troupe she had taken out single handedly after sending Faith back, but she had also managed to remain completely immaculate. And judging from the dirty girls' looks at Buffy pristine designer shirt, Andrew had a feeling that it had something to do with the glares sent in the senior Slayers direction.

"I don't get it. How can we be covered head to toe in mud and she's still clean?" Several muddy heads nodded in silent bewilderment as each girl in the group looked over at the blonde leading them back home.

Ahead of them Buffy walked happily, the girls each noted the sudden spring in her step, almost as though she were more energized, and the Slayer was unaware that she had eleven sets of eyes glaring at her. No one would be certain who had started it, but Buffy stopped dead in her tracks when she felt the first hit.

The handful of grime slid down the tank and a little slipped past the back of her jeans, she shivered at the feeling of it. Whipping around, hazel eyes searched the blank faces of the new Slayers, and a question on her lips when it happened again.

Buffy stared down at the second hit, most of which had fallen down her cleavage.

"Oh, it's on." She said; there was a glint in her eyes and the girls took a collective step back. Several of the girls shifted nervously, a couple moved closer together; one or two quickly hid their hands behind their backs and gave her their most innocent looks.

The smarter ones ran.

Laughter and screaming quickly filled the air and a single figure made a quick bee line towards concealment.

Andrew sat huddled behind a bush, his breath coming in ragged little gasps as he listened to the chorus of laughs and screams.

The red light of his camcorder remained on though; he was if any thing a master of the archives and this would not go unrecorded, even though he was sure that he was in certain peril.

The lens swung back and forth as he recorded the fleeing bodies and he caught it all. At least until one of the girls caught the blinking red light from the shade of the bush. When the young man saw the oncoming rush towards his position he scrambled out of the foliage and ran screaming with a gaggle of girls close on his heels.

Buffy watched as the group faded from her view, a small smile playing on her lips. Everything was coming together; finally.

Faith stared at the folder and pictures before her, glaring at the offending objects.

She didn't want to do it, it wasn't going to help. Hell, she was pretty sure that doing it was just gonna fuck her up some more.

The internal war continued for several moments before she gave a disgusted grunt and pulled everything back towards her.

Damn it.

She was becoming obsessed.

It wasn't like she was a morbid person, although, in her line of work with the whole undead and slaying thing, she supposed morbidity was like a requirement, still though, this was bugging the shit out of her.

Her hand tapped rhythmically on the cherry wood of the kitchen table and she almost pushed it back away. Almost stood up and just walked out.

She was seconds from just leaving all the crap behind her and denying she ever found out anything about anything, only she didn't. Instead she flipped open the front of the folder and scanned the information again.

Elizabeth Carter.

This. Was. Freaking. The. Shit. Out. Of. Her.

It was like she had never even met the real Buffy. Elizabeth. Buffy.

"Ahh-Damn it!" The yell seemed to hang in the air for a moment, reverberating through the nearly empty house and Faith remained quiet as she listened. Waiting.

"Phew." She said as she relaxed back in her chair. Dawn hadn't woken up. She'd have felt a little guilty; kid was still growing like a weed and needed her rest. And it didn't help that the two of them didn't go to bed until around oh- like four in the morning. There had been a ton of shit in those files. Psyche evaluations from when Buffy had been in the loony-bin and, damn, she had to admit that the shit pissed her off. Dumb ass doctors, wouldn't have even believed in a vamp if they had bitten them in the ass; literally.

And that shit ass family of hers. Just turning on her. B apparently didn't have luck when it came to people kicking her to the curb. She wondered what the other Slayer had felt when she found out that her family thought she was crazy. What had it been like to watch them as they turned away? As they denied everything that she was trying to tell them? That must have sucked like hell.

Faith had never had a father and her mother had been strung out more often then not. She hadn't given anyone the chance to ever betray her.

Poor Buff.

Damn it!

She hated this feeling.

It felt weak.

It felt… like she was part of a family.

And that scared her in a way that no demon out of hell ever could. She shouldn't feel like this. There was more then one morning, more like every day really, that she woke up and wondered just how she had gotten her.

Just how the dark Slayer, the bad Slayer, was here, back with the prodigal child and her friends? How she was here teaching young Slayers to use their powers and not to end up like she was?

Faith had made the mistake one day, about amonth after SunnyD had become a big hole, of telling a young Slayer who was having troubles that she didn't want to end up like her and Buffy had heard her as she spoke. The blonde Slayer had walked across the room and smacked her on the back of the head. While Faith had been busy cursing her out, B had surprised her by yelling at her to shut up and Faith even more surprisingly had, her mouth a little 'O', an expression of surprise that she sill denied she'd actually ever had on her face, and then the blonde had done something that Faith had never expected her.

She had called Faith stupid, which wasn't a big surprise there, but then she had told her that she was one of the greatest people the blonde knew. That she was stronger then almost any one else that the blonde knew because unlike most, Faith had embraced her darker self and instead of remaining in the dark, Faith had fought to return from it, a battle that the dark-haired Slayer still fought each and every day.

Faith had been so shocked she hadn't been able to speak, she had just stood there her mouth opening and closing and Buffy had just glared, telling her to never degrade herself again or else next time she was kicking her ass and it hadn't been until Buffy had stood there glaring at her that Faith realized it. Buffy was her family, just as Dawn was.

Faith never had a family and now she had two annoying siblings. Faith was more then a little shocked at times just how much she actually enjoyed it. It was like two months ago when they had played dress up, which had pretty much been Faith and Dawn going through all of Buffy's clothes and trying everything on then taking the blonde and turning her into their own little Barbie doll as they put make-up on her and then vamped her out in Faith's clothes.

B had looked hot, even if she had still looked a little like a walking skeleton.

It was weird. Faith never would have thought that she would have grown so close to Ms. Perfect. But here she was. Ready to kill some nameless people because they had hurt her.

This… this was different. Not in a bad way. But it was… well, different.

Faith picked up a picture and looked at the two young girls. She could tell which one was Buffy straight off. All those curls, dead give away.

There was another blonde girl, a few years older the Slayer guessed and from the similarity, probably B's sister.

It was odd though, Buffy's smile was... unguarded. Faith had never realized that she'd never seen that look on the other Slayer's face until that picture and she also had never realized just how good of an actress the blonde woman was.

It still galled Faith that she had never even guessed any of this.

Faith sighed and pushed everything away. Reading it all over again wasn't going to make it make any more sense then it already did. And she and Dawn had pretty much already covered just about all the possibilities of Blondie's supposed family.

Faith almost wished that they had Red here. The witch had mad skills when it came to the net and getting the information needed, but both she and Dawn had decided to keep the information secret. Which worked in a way since no one was due back for another couple of days any how. Hopefully by then either Buffy would come clean or else they'd have found something out. This curiosity was frickin' killing' her.

Still, no telling nothing to the Scoobies.

Faith had made her peace with the Slayer after she had returned to them before the big thing with the First. She had apologized, even though she hadn't been part of that little privy council to boot Buffy out. But the others never had. Oh, Dawn had been working hard ever since to make it up to her sister, even though the topic had never been broached, but the others….Willow, Giles, and Xander had just avoided the whole thing. She could kinda excuse Xander, what with losing Anya and all, but Willow and Giles? Nope. Faith had come to the decision that they all had their heads up their collective asses so far that the three wouldn't realize their mistake until it was too late.

She just hoped that she was wrong.

The door bell snapped her out of her reverie; the Slayer sprang up and ran like hell towards the door. Hoping to catch the idiot before he rang it again and woke up the younger Summers.

She threw open the door, not even bothering to check first, what with all the wards that Wills had put up when they had first set up shop; no being bearing ill will towards any one living there would be able to find the mansion.

The sight before her though gave her heart a little flutter. Damn. He was hot. Faith's eyes traveled in blatant appreciation of the man standing there. From the blond tipped hair, all mussed like he'd just gotten out of bed, to the tight white tee that hugged those muscles, and the jeans. Those jeans that allowed the Slayer to take in the fact that the boy sure had a lot to offer a girl. Oh, yeah. He was damn fine. Her eyes wondered back up and she smirked when she saw him shift with discomfort from her perusal.

However, when he spoke, Faith wanted to smack herself upside the head.

"Ma'am, I was told that you just might be able to help us, I was wondering if I might have a moment of your time." Faith contemplated shutting the door in his face right then and there.

He'd fooled her for a second, but when he spoke, it all came out. The refined voice, clipped tones, enunciated words, and that damned posture. The body had distracted her for a moment there.

Shit.

She was hanging around Buffy way too much; especially if she was lusting after military boys now.

Great.

Faith had only one encounter with the starchy kind in Riley and even that had been in Buffy's body. The darker Slayer tended to like her meat a little more seasoned, a little more…kinky.

The thought gave her a pause, given how Mr. Perfect ended up with the whole vampire whore addiction, Faith decided that she was wrong on that one; she didn't want anybody quite that freaky.

After an hour and several cups of coffee later, Faith decided that she needed to go to the bathroom, really badly. Except she didn't want to leave the room and she was having a hell of a time not bouncing around right now or doing some version of the pee-pee dance. Well, if this wasn't cozy.

One antsy Slayer, one still tired teen, one under cover military man who was still playing at surfer dude, and a very tired looking Watcher.

Faith was almost as unsettled by how old Giles was looking at this moment as she was about all of the other… news she had discovered.

From her spot across the table, Dawn took another sip of her coffee and raised a silent eyebrow at the Slayer. Faith was just about to level a glare when those damned eyes flickered on her again.

Redirecting her glare to their visitor, the Slayer was even more annoyed when she saw a look of amusement dance through his eyes before that damned mask fell again.

At the moment she couldn't tell if it was all the coffee or the guy that was bugging her so much; maybe decaf?

"Faith?" Giles asked, his gaze settling on her and Faith cursed herself for not paying attention as she realized that she was about to sound like an idiot when she had to ask what he was talking about.

Damn it.

"Faith, I agree with Giles, we should wait until the others return," Dawn directed a brilliant smile at the visitor and the Slayer was tempted to get up and give the girl a kiss for saving her ass from looking like an idiot.

"Yeah. Right. That's what we should do all right." Faith mentally grimaced. God, could she sound like more of a dork? That was it. No more coffee. And next time Andrew came around, she was smacking him; he was rubbing off on her. She almost sighed in relief when she heard the door and Faith sent a little prayer of thanks to what ever fucked up deity was currently running their lives. Leaning back in her chair, Faith turned towards the still open kitchen door and cupped her hand beside her mouth as she yelled. "B?"

Settling back down she almost, almost smirked at the shocked expressions of the faces around her. Oh, yeah, slayer hearing so totally rocked at times.

She heard the muffled footsteps, and Faith could tell that the blonde Slayer was shuffling her feet, as Buffy drew nearer Faith was assaulted by the scent of mud and pine needles. Just what had happened out there this weekend? However, the scents did nothing to prepare the other Slayer for when the petite blonde entered the room, covered almost head to toe in mud. Pine needles were sticking out of the jumbled mess of curls.

"Listen, if you guys don't mind, I so want to go and shower because right now, I am pretty sure that there is mud where…" Buffy's words trailed as she caught a glimpse of the unfamiliar man in her kitchen and Faith watched as her sister Slayer dropped into her guard mode, she was surprised momentarily at how easily it came to the blonde. If Faith hadn't been watching her though, she never would have seen the sudden change of emotions on the other Slayer's face. Faith saw the look of confusion in the hazel eyes bleed to shock, then to disbelief, and finally joy.

"Paul?" Buffy whispered and Faith frowned. Paul? That sure as hell wasn't the name he had given them. What the hell was going on?

Davis for his part had started to raise, a confused smile on his lips. "I'm sorry ma-am, but I believe that you have the advantage over me and you are?" The question hung unanswered for several moments and three sets of eyes watched in interest at the scene unfolding before them, Giles, Faith, and Dawn all kept riveted, their eyes flicking back and forth between their visitor and the other Slayer; no one willing to speak.

Army boy' eyes widened finally and he took a step forwards. "Buffy?"

Faith averted her eyes for a moment at the tone of voice. She had never had a man speak her name like that. With that amount of love and amazement, not even Robin who had been the closest to breaking down her defenses.

"I thought you were dead," the man said and quickly strode towards the unmoving woman. He stopped only inches away, still staring unbelievingly into her face, and then suddenly he took a step and hugged her tightly. Faith could see the rigid line of the other Slayer's back and then she watched as the frame relax, not a lot at first, but Faith could see it.

They stood that way for several moments before he finally pulled away.

"Damn, B, what is it with you and the army boys?" She asked and then looked in surprise at Giles sudden in take of breath. "Oh please, tell me you knew?" She said and then sighed at Giles' continued stunned silence. So much for the whole Watcher watching thing.

"Buffy?" Dawn asked as Buffy looked at her sister, a happiness shining in her eyes that neither Faith nor Dawn had realized they had never seen before. "Who is this?"

"It's Paul. Paul Davis." At Dawn's continued look of confusion Buffy smiled softly. "Paul is Pike's brother. I met him when… when I ran away. After Lothos." A brief look of recognition appeared in Dawn's eyes, but it wasn't from what Buffy had told her. It was from the files. The younger Summers knew about Buffy running away all those years ago, but only because of the files. In her memories, she had never learned of Buffy running away after the gym incident. At the time Dawn had been away at a special program for gifted children. She hadn't returned home until after Buffy was back home and Hank had already left for parts unknown.

In his chair at the table, Giles straightened. "When did you run away?" Giles asked, a look of confusion and determination to discover what was going on were in Giles eyes. It was a look that neither Dawn nor Faith had ever actually seen, in fact, no one had, not since Angelus. The watcher looked at his Slayer and not only wondered what was going on, but also just why he was unaware of this man. As her Watcher, Giles was supposed to know these things, and it was more then a little disturbing for Giles to find out that after all of these years, there were still parts of his Slayer's past that he was unaware of.

Sam clicked the pen, the steady noise the only sound in the other wise silent room. How could she even write this up on report?

It had only been a few hours since she and her team had returned from the medieval planet and after hearing of the alien life form that the team had encountered, the General had requested that every one submit their reports before leaving for the night.

Yet, it was still so difficult to process everything that had happened.

She had watched one of her teammates die.

She had watched Teal'c die.

Okay, so he hadn't died, he had actually put himself into a trance while the people on the planet were putting him through witch trials, but, still, she remembered watching as they had taken his seemingly lifeless body from the water.

It had been like another member of her family had died.

It was sad in its own way. She had come to know the Colonel, Daniel, and Teal'c better then she knew her family or at least what was left of it now; just dad and Mark, neither or which she really spoke too. It was her team that she often went to when she was troubled, and, in a lot of ways, Danny was actually like the sister she didn't have.

The small smile that had started to creep over her face faded at that thought.

She had a sister once. A sister she had promised long ago that she would never leave, a promise that Sam had made shortly after their mother's death. And instead of staying with Buffy, she'd lost her for ever.

All because she wouldn't stand beside Buffy; if she had only supported her. Instead, Sam had let Aunt Joyce take care of her; she hadn't even challenged Jacob when he had agreed to Buffy's adoption. Thinking back, she remembered the look of betrayal that her younger sister had given her on that last visit she had made before leaving to go back to the base she had been stationed at for nearly a year.

She hadn't wanted to go, but Sam knew she couldn't have handled it, she had just known it. Yet, another part of her wondered if maybe, just maybe, she could have.

Sam had her doubts as she had returned back to her home only a day before Buffy was slated to go home, but she had repressed them. She had been secure in the knowledge that this would be the best for her sister. That Joyce would be able to provide better care for the fifteen year old than either she or Jacob would have been able to.

It had been her hope and she had pushed any doubts from her mind, deciding to instead focus on a career that she loved and a life that she enjoyed; even if she had come home to an empty apartment for most of the past few years. She hadn't even thought about the possibility that her sisters life would come to an end at such a young age as twenty.

And Sam was shamed to admit it, but she had never even imagined a life in which she had taken Buffy instead for all of those years. A life in which she would've left the military to care for her sister.

After reading that damned letter three years ago, Carter now thought about it constantly.

What would have happened?

Would Buffy still be alive? Would she have still died young? Sam sometimes dreamt of a life where she taught at some small school in a nameless town. There she watched her sister grow up. She watched as her sister went to the prom, as she had graduated from high school and then later college. As her sister was walked down the aisle, marrying a man who would love and cherish her, and sometimes, just sometimes, Sam also dreamt of a little brown haired girl who called her Auntie Sam.

Those were always the worst; the little girl with long brown hair and blue eyes. The little girl who would never have the chance to live. The little girl who would never call her aunt, the little girl who Sam would never get to take to the park, or to the beach. The little girl who she never had the chance to buy noisy toys for in order to annoy her sister.

The little girl who never had a chance; never because Sam had been more concerned about the inconvenience of caring for an unstable girl.

Wiping away a tear, Sam rubbed her face with the towel that had been lying beside the sink and sighed tiredly into the soft fabric.

Yeah, seeing Teal'c enter that water had brought a lot home to Sam and if it were possible, made her wonder what would have happened even more had she made different choices.

She had let one family fall away from her with out a fight; she wasn't going to let another one follow the same road.

--

Author's Note::

For all of you that have been reading, I am terribly sorry about how long it took to update. I had to switch my sytem to Vista and it didn't like any...well, anything from my previous system Evil computers.

Any way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review. Reviews make me happy and also make the muse wanna work!

Thanks and Ta!!!!


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: The same one applies as all the rest of the chapters I've put up o far; I don't own anything of either SG1 or BtVS

Note: Sorry for any mistakes, they are all mine, if anything is glaringly horrible just let me know and I will fix it.

Special thanks to Meri, Pol, and Ivy. Love you darlings!!

Summary: After leaving her sister in a mental institution years ago, Sam Carter had thought she had gotten over Elizabeth Summers untimely death three years ago. But, when Carter's alternate self from another reality comes through the Quantum Mirror she hears that Dr. Samantha Carter's ( "I prefer Samantha, thanks") sister, though having died at a young age, had a wonderful life, a loving husband, and a supportive sister. The incident leaves Carter wondering, had she not abandoned her own sister, would the young woman still be alive? Or, at the very least, would she have died knowing that her sister had loved her? But, is her sister really as dead as she believes? Nah. After all, what would have happened if no one had informed Sam that her sister had been brought back to life a year after her death? And now with the Goa'uld inching closer and closer, secrets and misconceptions are ready to be brought into the light, whether any one wants them to be or not.

--Chapter Eight--

--

Faith was tired, she was irate, she was deeply disturbed by recent events, and more than ever she just wanted to hit something; repeatedly.

Closing the door behind her, she leaned against the aged oak for a few moments just trying to remember why being a good guy had such a big appeal.

They had crappy hours, no personal life, and a tendency to have life come up and bite them in the ass more often than not.

Yeah, being on the side of all that was good and sugary sweet. Whoo-hoo.

She'd had a hell of a lot more fun being rogue.

So what if she'd been on constant run from both the Council and the cops? She'd still been free. She'd still dictated what her life was going to be, she'd been able to go to bed whenever she had wanted, she had been able to cuss and flirt and fuck her way through what ever backwater bar she wanted too. She had been able to do anything she'd wanted.

She'd been able to run, to avoid, to flee from her past.

Being good meant that it could catch back up on her in the form of Buffy and Dawn Summers.

It had been a long time since she'd let anyone in, since she'd allowed herself to really care about anyone, and she'd been fine with it.

Really.

Screw who ever said she hadn't been...fricking panty-waist, gel-brained vampire that Angel was.

Damn.

Being domesticated sucked.

Being good sucked even more because she wasn't technically allowed to go out and slay humans, even though Faith had severe questions about just how human Buffy's biological family were if they frickin' locked her into a damned loony bin and then just shoved her onto the nearest available relative.

Pushing away from the door, Faith shrugged out of her shirt, quickly slid her jeans off, and made her way towards her bed, leaving the clothes where they had fallen; naked but for the boy shorts she'd worn beneath her jeans.

Sliding underneath the covers she looked around furtively while one hand sneaked beneath the pillows. Quietly, she drew out her tank top...which just happened to be wrapped around a couple of files.

Slipping on the thin cotton tank took only seconds and by time she'd reached over and flicked on the lamp beside her bed, she'd already pulled the largest file onto her lap and opened it.

A much younger Buffy started up at her, there were bags beneath the hazel eyes, and a tired twist to lips normally occupied by a smile, faint bruises stood out against the pale skin varying in colors from a deep black to a sickly yellow, bruises which Faith had learned from reading the file that Buffy had sustained from trying to escape the mental ward because the guards had been forced to 'subdue' her. From the date printed on the back of the picture, the photo was taken only two days after her admittance.

Poor B.

Faith guessed she'd been blessed in a way. Her mom, had Faith still been with her when Diana had entered her life, wouldn't have cared enough to worry if Faith had started talking about vampires and demons. Not even the few foster families she'd stayed would have been too concerned since most of them had been more concerned with the extra money she brought along every month than anything else.

No one would have cared enough about her to have her institutionalized and Faith was glad a little thankful about the fact.

Being screwed over like that would have probably driven her over the edge. Not that her life hadn't already pushed her over it at one point or another. She'd already gone over the edge more than once, heck, at this point the line had become so blurred she felt as though she were in constant danger of reverting. It was so easy just not to care...

Still, her descent probably would have come a lot sooner if she'd been as screwed over as B had been. Hell, she was surprised that Buffy hadn't let it break her.

Perhaps Buffy would have if she'd had to stay in that place any longer than those couple of weeks; being surrounded by the real crazies, doubting her own sanity….

Faith knew the Council would have found B eventually if that had been the case and they would have ordered her death just as surely as they'd ordered Faith's when she'd gone rogue.

When Slayer's became broken, the Council didn't try to fix them, they just replaced them.

It was more...economical.

One of Faith's hands rhythmically kept balling into a fist as she thumbed through the pages, rereading over the information she'd already memorized, and trying to figure out why.

It wasn't life Faith had possessed a great home life growing up.

She'd never really had anyone that she'd cared about for most of her life, the few she'd let in had either screwed her over or died on her. And it was weird that even with all the shit between them, Faith considered Buffy her only true piece of family.

Well, Buffy and Dawn.

Two years ago she'd have laughed at anyone who'd have told her she'd be a sister to the Summer's duo and she'd have probably followed the laugh with something decidedly more violent.

Now...she wanted to kill whoever had fucked over Buffy. She wanted to find them and ask why the hell they'd ripped out her sister's heart with what looked like no reservations. She wanted to know why. She had to know why. And the need was driving her insane.

A soft knock broke her out of her reverie.

She had the files closed and hidden away even before the door swung open. Dawn's head peaked around the edge of the door, a troubled expression on her face.

At least Faith knew she wasn't the only one freaking out. Misery loved company and all that shit.

Dawn was probably worried about Kennedy being the one sent out with Buffy as much as Faith was, just one more thing to worry over. As if they didn't have enough.

It wasn't that Kennedy was bad. As big of a pain in the ass Kennedy was, the girl had potential; if she could pull her head out of her ass and act like a part of the team. Not that Faith had a lot of room to talk, but hell….

And Faith supposed part of the worry gnawing away inside of her had to do with the fact that she wasn't the one going out with Buffy tonight. Kennedy was good, Faith knew she was better though. Plus, tonight was also the first time since Sunnydale that Faith wasn't accompanying the blonde for patrol. That she did not like at all given the severity what Buffy and Kennedy had been sent out to look for.

That and Faith just didn't like being benched.

Especially by Giles; what respect Faith had for the man had taken a hit when he'd planned on killing Spike behind all of their backs, Robin's part she almost could have understood, but she still wondered over the reasons behind Giles ease in planning the murder of some one who Buffy had come to depend upon. There was also the part he'd taken in that little 'meeting' about Buffy's need for a break and while he hadn't been too bad over the last few months, this whole thing with Davis was throwing him back out of whack, and he was showing it by splitting up her and B.

Fuck, he was showing it by putting B on patrol with Kennedy.

It wasn't like Kennedy was all bad, Faith could give the girl her props, she knew how to fight and she did well when leading her own little team.

The problem lie in the fact that every ounce of brain Kennedy possessed seemed to go out the window whenever she was in the same room with Buffy.

Faith, Kennedy didn't like because she thought she wanted to screw her girlfriend, exactly where the younger Slayer had picked up that little paranoia Faith wasn't certain, and no amount of denying it was helping.

Buffy...Kennedy just didn't like. Every time Kennedy was with Buffy she tried to show off, to display just why she should be the Chosen One and not Buffy.

The idiot.

Buffy was already unstable enough what with the picture she got spooked over and then with Army Boy showing up.

Buffy needed some one to guard her back, she didn't need was to have to worry about some dumb ass trying to grand-stand, and that was exactly situation Giles had sent his Slayer into.

Faith knew he'd seen how upset Buffy had been, he'd seen it and just because Buffy hadn't been ready to share everything with him he'd…acted like the worried Watcher he was, and been rebuffed when he found Buffy wasn't willing to share.

As punishment, he'd sent her on patrol with some one she didn't like.

Giles probably hadn't even realized what he was doing, it seemed like neither he nor Buffy realized any more when they hurt one another. Seemed it was always like they just inflicted new wounds on top of old ones.

Buffy had once told Faith that Giles was like a father to her and it was a widely known fact that family was always the one thing that could fuck a person up the most.

Family.

The Carters.

The mysterious Pike.

Paul Davis.

Seemed like Buffy had one hell of a closet full of skeletons.

Hmmm.

Davis.

Faith was still dying to know what it was the two of them had talked about when Buffy had walked him out earlier, Faith hadn't been able to listen in, all she had been able to do was stand at the window and peek around the curtain while pretending not to watch.

What ever he'd said before he had left had caused Buffy had to cry. Sure there hadn't been in outwards signs that the casual observer would catch; lucky thing Faith wasn't one. Buffy had barely walked back through the door when Faith had started taking stock of all those subtle little differences. The eyes that were just a little redder than when she slipped through the door a few minutes earlier, slight slopping of the shoulders, glassy expression reflected from those hazel eyes.

And then there was that card. Faith hadn't even seen Davis hand one to Buffy, he must have done it when he'd briefly hugged Buffy before climbing back into his SUV.

She supposed her skills of observation were way sucking since she'd only caught a glimpse of it when Buffy had pocketed the card. Even more annoying was the fact that Faith couldn't go and hunt him down in order to demand some answers.

Bastard was probably already almost back to Colorado by now because of that mysterious call he'd received not ten minutes after that little reunion with Buffy; a call that had forced him to cut the trip short whether or not he'd been able to achieve his goal of recruitment.

Must have been some pretty heavy shit that had happened though since he'd just about shut down every visible emotion on his face while he'd been on the phone and the only animation in his features had been when he'd had to tell Buffy good-bye.

Faith had been able to read those emotions clearly enough.

She just wished she hadn't been able too, it was easier to hate the guy than to sympathize with him.

Davis and his relationship to Buffy seemed to be just one more enigma wrapped inside of a rapidly growing puzzle. As if the fricking mysteries surrounding Buffy needed to be any thicker.

Faith had stood with Buffy, watching as Davis had driven out of sight, and she'd seen that look on Buffy's face. Buffy had wanted to talk.

Damn Giles.

Faith was pretty certain she'd have been able to get Buffy to talk if he hadn't wanted to have a little 'discussion' with Buffy before she went out.

What a load of crap that had been.

He'd wanted information, as if he'd had any right to it. As far as Faith was concerned any right he had to anything about Buffy had gone out the window that night in Sunnydale. She and Dawn had made her peace with Buffy, none of the others had, and Faith wanted to hit them over their idiotic heads every time they looked at Buffy and expected something from her.

Especially when Buffy had stopped asking them for things. Faith wondered if any of the others had even realized it. She'd stopped turning to Giles for guidance, she'd stopped asking Willow for help in research, she'd even stopped asking Xander for backup. Oh, she'd let them when they pressed her about helping out, but she never asked, and when they did help her, Buffy remained quiet throughout.

The probably didn't even see the fact that she was drawing away from them and Faith couldn't blame her.

Dawn moved forwards, edging her way towards Faith till she sat perched on the edge of the bed.

Meeting the worried blue eyes, Faith sighed. She wasn't the only one who was worried about B and it'd do no good if both of them never slept tonight. No matter how old Dawn seemed sometimes, she was still only a kid.

Hell, technically she was only five.

Mentally she was an adult, emotionally…Faith saw a lot of the uncertain kid that Dawn still was and it was moments like this that drove home that fact.

"She'll be fine," Faith said, ignoring the uncertainty that traced her words.

Dawn nodded, still remaining quiet. Sighing again, Faith pulled back the edge of her comforter and the teen moved silently into the space, slipping beneath the covers as Faith pulled them up around her neck. Faith reached out, brushing a few strands from Dawn's face, and watched as she tried to fight away sleep.

In moments Dawn's breathing evened out and Faith just watched her, wondering just when she had went from being a complete loner to having two sisters.

Two sisters who she'd die to protect.

Settling against the head board, Faith kept brushing her fingers through Dawn's hair, her eyes distant as she tried to figure out a way to protect her family.

Maybe Cleveland wasn't the best place. Some days it seemed like the three of them needed a new start, something removed from the supernatural. Something new. Something different. Something not filled with death, with lies, with so much baggage.

Faith never knew when she fell asleep, one hand falling to rest on Dawn's as sleep stole over her.

-

Faith didn't do diplomacy. She never did, never wanted to, never tried.

Diplomacy was just something she'd never needed. She'd never been exceptionally gifted with words and it had just been easier to leave the diplomacy to other people.

Diana, Giles, Buffy, Angel, Wes, the list wasn't really very long and looking back the only person she'd ever really taken orders from that hadn't been on this supposed side of right was Wilkins.

Wilkins...she still thought of the Mayor at times, not often, just enough to make sure all the old wounds could never really heal.

A lot of people had used her, she was used to it, it had been a lesson her mother had taught her, and while Faith had promised herself she'd never let people do to her what her mother had allowed, Faith had let them do other things; things that left more scars on her mind and soul than her body, some days she wasn't certain which was better.

A long time ago Diana, her first watcher, had told her that a Slayer's body was their greatest weapon; Faith had taken that to heart, after all, it had been an extension of something her mother had always told her, that a woman's body was her greatest asset. Same thing, just different points of view.

Faith had learned how to use her body when she was younger, she'd found ways to get what she wanted from with either strength or guile.

Diplomacy was over-rated. What use was treaties and negotiations in a world filled with darkness? Why bother when the only things to be dealt with were the things being hunted down?

She didn't make deals with the bad guys anymore, those days were long ago. Besides, she didn't need fancy words or polite manners. She had her own very special brand of diplomacy, one perhaps not actually seen as being anything close to the real thing, yet worked just dandy for her.

Oh, she did the meet and greet.

It was just that her version generally meant that her fist was about to meet someone's or something's face and they were going to be greeted with a great deal of pain.

Fine. So she could admit she wasn't that great on patience either, it just wasn't quite her forte, and up until now, she'd never had a major problem with her lack of social graces.

Ultimately, given her lack of any people skills that didn't include the occasion bout of extreme violence, she was shocked as hell about the fact she for some reason could not get her body to obey her mind.

Normally they two worked perfectly together; suddenly discovering the fact they weren't on speaking terms while being held by a couple of guys as another pushed his face into her little personal bubble was rapidly becoming annoying as hell.

As was trying to figure out why her ears and eyes weren't exactly working right. Everything was kind of blurred, almost like she was more of a passenger than the driver.

Shit.

She knew she wasn't that old, it was supposed to be years before her body started giving out.

Sure, Slayers were supposed to live hard and die young, however, she didn't think this was exactly the norm for living past the age of twenty in a calling where only her and Buffy had surpassed the landmark age of twenty, a feat only a handful of Slayers had ever managed.

Still, Faith had to wonder as she tried to struggle whether not any of her predecessors had also been inflicted with an unexplained onset of old person.

Damn.

Mentally screaming she tried to get her head to move forwards. What she wanted to do was let the guy's chin become intimately acquainted with the back of his throat. What her body was doing was just…nothing.

She was just standing there surrounded by guys in funky clothing and Faith couldn't help feeling like she was the under-dressed kid at some posh Halloween party.

Hello crappy childhood memories.

If anybody had told her she needed to wear something funky she'd have at least warn something a little better than, Faith looked down and her nose wrinkled, a black tee-shirt, BDU pants, and…Jimmy Choo?

The fact that she could recognize the make of her boots made her give a little shudder of disgust and, for the first time since she'd woken up in a room surrounded by strangers, she wondered just what the hell was going on.

Closing her eyes, she let her mind ignore the man standing in front of her, she ignored the tip of the knife against her throat as it traveled down, she ignored the worried gazes of the unfamiliar people she'd woken up beside, and she ignored the guys who were restraining her as she started to really try and look.

Hmmm…nothing.

No reasons, no memories, no explanations as to how she'd gotten invited to this little fucked up party.

Opening her senses she ignored the muffled sound of the asshole's voice and let the Slayer take a peek. Shit.

Until she'd actually dove in and started 'looking' she'd thought these guys were human. After all, they looked human, they smelled human, and they were certainly arrogant enough for the normal low level gang enforcer…looking deeper though, there was something deep inside of them, something that made them not quite right.

Explained why they were able to restrain her. She'd thought it had just been because of what ever they had hit her, it had to have been some serious shit since Faith still felt a little woozy from it. Now, however, she was starting to think that it went just a little father then that.

She should have gotten the clue when their grips had tightened and she'd actually felt their fingers digging in. Most humans couldn't do that, regular Joe Blow simply wasn't strong enough to really register on a scale normally used to rate creatures with supernatural strength.

Great, not only did her body not want to work right, her brain had also seemed to go on strike. At least her Spidey senses weren't letting her down…yet.

Keeping her eyes closed, she extended her awareness a little further, trying to cut through the fog that clung stubbornly to her mind, blanketing all of her usual senses, dulling them to the point where Faith felt removed from everything coloring her surroundings till it seemed more like a dream than anything else. Good thing she was equipped with Slayer senses, things were a pain in the ass what with the night owl syndrome they brought along. Of course, sometimes the pros evened out with the cons.

Huh, it wasn't just the guys holding her still that were giving off the weird vibes.

Opening her eyes, Faith's gaze locked onto one of the men still kneeling. She'd woken up almost right on top of him till the ass with the funky headdress had pulled her up and she hadn't felt anything funny then. She was now though. She had to give him some props, he was better at hiding it, what ever was dulling her senses hadn't picked up on him till the very last, and even then he seemed…different.

There was still a sense of otherness around him. Just like the others there seemed to be something that blurred their humanity, almost like a taint of some kind.

Tall and dark looked how Faith was feeling and looked pretty drugged up still. The other people in their little party were seemed to be more coherent now, Faith figured that the bad guys had hit him with what ever they had hit her with since the others out of her party were able to actually talk. Faith couldn't understand what the older guy was saying. What she could understand though was the way the main baddie's mouth firmed into a frown at his words and Faith felt her body flinch as one of the guards cuffed him on the back of his head. That looked like it hurt like hell.

Geez it'd be great to know what the hell was going on.

She wasn't used to waking up and not knowing what had happened to her, she'd even gotten pretty good at the whole stability thing over the past few years.

Let's see, last thing she remembered was…Buffy?

An argument between B and Giles and then…it was foggy.

Thing was, Faith was supposed to be with Buffy wasn't she? She was supposed to be out on patrol and the group of strangers surrounding her sure as hell did not include the blonde.

Wait. Giles. The fight…no, it hadn't been a fight, it'd been probably the most civilized 'discussion' that Faith had even witnessed.

There'd been no raised voices, no large expressive movements that conveyed any anger. What there had been plenty of was a current between the two as though there had been so much more being said silently than being spoken aloud.

Giles had benched Faith.

That fucker.

She was supposed to have gone out on patrol and he'd stopped her, sent Kennedy out with Buffy instead, citing Faith's injured shoulder as a reason even though it barley ached. Buffy and Faith had known it was a crock.

Faith could recall Buffy's placid expression as she'd marched out of the room, yelling for the newbie while Faith had given Giles a disgusted look and stormed out before she displayed her displeasure over his asinine actions since military boy had shown up.

Faith remembered dragging herself into her bed, Dawn had come in and fallen asleep while they waited for Buffy to return to the mansion…and then she'd woken up in a scratchy pair of pants with no memory of how she'd gotten there.

Shit.

No wonder everything seemed like a dream. Fucking Slayer dreams.

Well, that at least explained a little. Like why she had no idea what the hell was going on.  
It seemed standard operational procedure for these things to be as confusing as possible, this one was a first though.

Supposedly Faith should have been able to at least see and hear normally, the whole muffled disjointed feeling was different from the descriptions she'd ever been given and were highly unappreciated.

Faith's attention snapped back to what was going on around her and again wanted to drive her head forwards and knock that smirk off of the bastard's face only to again find out she couldn't.

Damn it.

Her eyes searched around, picking up the little details around her. The odd symbol on the other captives uniforms, some kind of circle with a triangle in it. There was the older guy who was straining at the hands holding him now, the younger geeky guy beside him who was rapidly speaking in what sounded like utter nonsense especially when indistinct, the blonde woman who stared at her with something like horror as she watched the head ass-hole slowly cut open the top of Faith's shirt, the big guy who was coming around and another guard had taken hold of him in order to keep him still…the big guy, who the hell tattooed their forehead?

The dark man moved slightly, jerking back just enough that Faith could see there was another person beside him and Faith would have let her jaw open in surprise if she could have. Oz? What the hell? Purple hair? Huh, she had to admit that it kinda matched his complexion.

Hell. This dream was getting weirder by the moment.

Damn prophetic dreams.

Faith's eyes snapped back to the guy in front of her, something had changed. He'd stopped talking, the knife blade had stopped moving.

Faith looked into his eyes and she read everything he was probably planning; it wasn't pretty.

Before her brain had caught up, her body drove forwards and she felt pain blaze through her shoulder as she plunged forwards onto the knife, her blood gushing as she ripped away, taking the knife embedded there with her, and all the while her mind was screaming 'What the fuck?' at the highest level available.

The guy in front of her blinked and the guards were thrown off enough she struggled out of the grasp as she dove forwards once again. She'd barely taken a step before something hit her back and pain rippled through her entire body setting every nerve afire. Another blast hit her and she fell.

She hit the ground and everything began to grow more indistinct, Faith struggled to move, to speak, to do anything, and found herself unable too. She was trapped inside of her own body; been there, done that, already woken from one coma and wasn't looking forwards to another.

Her gaze locked onto the floor and Faith struggled to figure out what was going on. Her eyes latched onto the floor, trying to take in the details as she tried to bring the world back to her, and then her mind recoiled in horror as she saw the eyes reflected back off of the mirror like surface.

Hazel eyes stared at her, blond hair replacing the brunette locks she knew were supposed to be there, and Faith stared even after the blood from her wound had spread out around her, erasing the image from her sight. Faith felt a wail of loss built up within her…

-

And woke with it on the verge of tumbling from her lips. Chilled sweat had broken out, the small droplets lining her brow, and she tugged fitfully at her tank-top as the thin cotton material felt as though it had glued to her skin.

Goose-bumps broke out along her body as she became aware of the cold air from the vents as it hit her sweat soaked skin. Sitting up she struggled to calm her breathing and recall the dim details of her dream.

Well, almost all of the details.

She was trying hard to forget Buffy's sightless eyes and she was pretty certain the memory of it was going to haunt her for a while.

Damn dreams.

Well, that had been a bit of a mind bender and certainly a first, she'd never had a Slayer dream from someone else's point of view before. Or at all.

She didn't like it. At all. Talk about disorienting. And freaky. And…a lot of fucking things, most of which she wasn't looking forwards to actually examining.

Faith ran a trembling hand through her hair, nearly stopping breathing when she remembered she wasn't alone.

Straightening up, memories drifted back to her and she glanced down at the sleeping girl sprawled beside her.

She's be damned if she let anyone take Buffy away, Faith had only just found her family, she wasn't going to let some ass in a funky costume take a part of it away from her.

Absently she started rubbing at her side, almost thankful for the slight ache that had bloomed there. It was something to concentrate, something to focus on, something that she could latch onto and try to gather her confused thoughts...even if she wasn't exactly certain why the ache had started in the first place.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth. That was her motto. Okay, kill and then ask questions was more of her motto, but she was adaptable.

A slight grunt escaped from her as she slipped out of bed, the quick movement causing the pain in her side to momentarily twinge. Great, first her shoulder now her side. Old age sucked even at twenty-five. How the hell did Giles cope?

Shrugging off the pain, she grabbed her pants from the floor slipping them on as she continued making her way towards the door to her bedroom, and paused momentarily before she opened the door.

There was something...odd.

A ragged laugh escaped her at the thought and she stifled a giggle, so what if it felt slightly hysterical, when Dawn snorted in her sleep.

Damn, everything was frickin' odd right now and that was saying something when her normal world included things like vampires, ghouls, zombies, and demons.

Slayer dream aside, the feeling of discomfort was probably from all this damned unresolved crap that was floating around. Maybe she was getting an ulcer. Wait, could Slayer's even get ulcers?

At least she could get an answer about that.

Damn.

Everything had become so much more confusing since those files had surfaced. Faith was pretty certain her and little D would have figured out something if Army Boy hadn't shown up bringing even more baggage into the light. And then there was the thing going on between Giles and Buffy. Damn, like it was Buffy's fault that there were gaps in the information he'd originally been given about her life pre-Slayer...

Her life pre-Slayer. Faith wondered briefly if Giles knew about the Carters and ruthlessly squashed the fledgling thought before it could develop.

She didn't need any more suppositions and conspiracy theories running around inside her head. It was full enough.

Quietly, she opened the door, silently padding her way down the hallway and through the main rooms working her way towards the kitchen.

Slayer dreams. Just another thing that she really did not need right now. Not with all the crap going on around her.

Faith didn't have Slayer dreams. She'd never before had the dubious pleasure and could admit she'd been totally peachy with the fact.

Even after all these years she'd never had to deal with the damned things and she'd figured she never would have too. Some Slayers, she'd been told a long time ago, never had too. Diana, of course, had followed the statement with the explanation that these Slayers never lived long enough to have one.

That was not the case with Faith. Not since she was what one would call a mature Slayer.

This wasn't to say that Faith acted with propriety, no matter how much Buffy and Dawn tried to house break her, or that she displayed a type of manner that was beyond her years.

Nope.

Faith took pride in the fact that her attitude could put most fifteen year old boys to complete shame in the degree of perversion and gutter mindedness that her mind tended to exist within.

A mature Slayer was something of a rarity, it was something that happened perhaps one in every thirteen times a Chosen One was Called; it was a Slayer who survived the first two years of Slaying.

Faith had survived nearly seven with all the powers gifted to the Slayer, lacking only one; the dreams.

And now she'd had her first. Damn.

Diana had outlined just what Slayer dreams were a long time ago, it had been one of those late night talks that her Watcher had subjected her too centered solely on the possible future that lay before her. The dreams were either past Slayer memories, traumatic events imprinted upon the power of the Slayer at the time of it's passing from one Slayer to another, or else they were harbingers of what could be if the Slayer failed.

Basic doom and gloom stuff either way.

Faith, despite appearances at the time, hadn't been an idiot. Even at the tender age of twelve she had been around enough to know that the dreams were either omens of deaths from years ago or else deaths that were just waiting to happen.

This one certainly at least followed the trend...only...she'd never heard of a Slayer having a dream about another unless it was one of their predecessors' deaths.

No. This one was entirely prophetic. She knew how B had died before and this had come no where close to either of those times.

Grat. All Faith had to do now was to try to figure out how to stop it from coming true.

Shit. She wanted was a beer. Sad to say she'd have to settle for was glass of milk. Stupid mini-Slayers and the stupid necessity to set a good example, Faith could almost even hear Buffy as the thought ran through her head; a smirk crossed her lips.

Faith had been alone a long time and she'd never really had a family till now. Come to think of it, it didn't seem like Buffy had either. As close as B had once been to the Scoobies, the only people who seemed to be really close to Buffy anymore was Faith and Dawn…and Davis.

Damn, Faith wished she knew more of the story there.

Guy seemed to genuinely care about B, even Faith could see that, and it was the only reason that she hadn't taken her frustrations out on him yet. Which she was so totally justified in doing since, after all, he had initially lied to them about who he was and who he was working for.

Huh, maybe not lied exactly. It was more like he'd distorted the truth, Faith remembered Riley and Buffy had filled her in on all the details about what had happened with him. Riley had been pretty good at hiding things too, must be something the military taught in boot camp. Or maybe it was just a requirement for working in the private sector.

Faith stopped just inside of the kitchen doorway, leaning against the finished frame for a moment, allowing her thoughts to just drift.

Despite the fact that she was pretty damned certain she'd had a Slayer dream, she still really didn't want to dwell on it.

Buffy was her family, she was her sister in more ways than one even if not by blood, losing Buffy would be...bad.

Very, very bad.

Faith knew she wasn't the most stable of people and losing the blonde...

Bad. Very, very, very bad.

Not that Faith didn't have complete…faith in Buffy. Girl had more lives than a cat.

And it wasn't like Buffy hadn't defeated death before.

Death.

Hell, Faith had never thought she'd live past her first year of being called. She'd thought death would come swiftly for her; she'd been a screw-up as a child, only gifted in wheeling and dealing, and she'd figured that her version of street fighting wouldn't fare too well against something over three times her size and able to bench press a Chrysler.

Diana had been sure to tell her, repeatedly, that all she needed to do was train, that should Faith ever be called she'd be imbued with this magical strength and abilities that would enable her to great things.

Faith had thought the older woman was insane. Just some loony who still believed in fairytales and monsters. She'd kept believing that right up until she had meet her first demon. After that fiasco, Faith had realized that even with supernatural strength, she didn't think she'd survive long.

Faith still wasn't certain who was surprised more, herself or Diana when she had been Called.

That night had also been the only time that Faith remembered Diana having ever hugged her.

A part of her wondered if they'd have grown closer had Kakistos never found her. Even now, all these years later, Faith could still see the terror and pain on Diana's face as Kakistos tortured her slowly. The master vampire had been just toying with Faith, he promised to either kill her or make her one of his children. It had been Diana's death that had made her snap. She didn't even remember breaking free or fighting Kakistos. She didn't remember anything but running away.

She'd ran and ran until she'd ended up in Sunnydale.

God. How stupid she'd been. She run straight to the only people she'd known who could help her and then she'd lied to them, afraid they'd turn her away, afraid they'd hate her for allowing Diana to be killed, for not being strong enough to slay the creature who'd taken her Watcher from her.

And they'd still helped her.

In the end she'd betrayed them because she couldn't handle it all; Diana had never told her how hard it was to control the power, to not give into the darkness that always seemed to beckon.

She'd imagined herself alone, she'd betrayed them without hesitation enough to stop.

She'd even begun to hate Buffy. Hated to prodigal child, the Slayer who had cheated death, the Slayer who had a family and friends, the Slayer who was so perfect that Faith had known she could never compare.

Damn. Faith wished she'd have known just how wrong she was back then, things would have been so different.

Pushing away from the doorway she walked into the kitchen still absently rubbing the lower half of her left side, trying to ease the dull pain throbbing there.

If wishes were money or, in the case of a Slayer, something pointy...

Well, Faith knew now and it only made her feel like more shit for her past actions.

Damn Slayer dream, she was pretty certain that sleep wasn't going to be in the cards anytime soon, not with the image of Buffy dead blazed into her brain and the stitch from hell in her side.

Something was changing. Something...Faith wasn't certain if she liked it or not. Change was coming. Question was would this change led to Buffy's death? Faith would be damned if some one else she loved would be taken away from her and she'd be doubly damned if she let any one hurt her sister.

Sighing she flipped on the light switch and placed her hand on the counter, feeling something stick to her fingers she frowned and looked down.

For a moment what she was seeing didn't quite click in her mind and once it did she ran out of the room leaving the kitchen empty but for the bloody handprint in which her fingerprints were still visible.

--

Author's Notes: Yay! A new chapter, I know this was way Faith centric, but...she had a little part and then while I was writing the chapter it just kind of ran away from me. The next chapter will see the others and answer a few more questions while bringing to light a whole slew of new problems.

Hope you liked it. Let me know? :)

WHOOOOPPPPPPSSS!!

Sorry for everyone who read this before when it was messed up. Totally did not catch that. Crap. Apologies.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: The same one applies as all the rest of the chapters I've put up so far; I don't own anything of either SG1 or BtVS

Note: Sorry for any mistakes, they are all mine, if anything is glaringly horrible just let me know and I will fix it.

Summary: After leaving her sister in a mental institution years ago, Sam Carter had thought she had gotten over Elizabeth Summers untimely death three years ago. But, when Carter's alternate self from another reality comes through the Quantum Mirror she hears that Dr. Samantha Carter's ( "I prefer Samantha, thanks") sister, though having died at a young age, had a wonderful life, a loving husband, and a supportive sister. The incident leaves Carter wondering, had she not abandoned her own sister, would the young woman still be alive? Or, at the very least, would she have died knowing that her sister had loved her? But, is her sister really as dead as she believes? Nah. After all, what would have happened if no one had informed Sam that her sister had been brought back to life a year after her death? And now with the Goa'uld inching closer and closer, secrets and misconceptions are ready to be brought into the light, whether any one wants them to be or not.

~-~

Jack was bored. And he was tired. And the infirmary beds were new and surprisingly comfortable. All of which was a really bad combination since Jack had to do some major damage control after the whole debriefing fiasco.

Which hadn't been his fault. At all.

Nope.

And if Janet didn't show up and do her voodoo soon, Jack was going to pass out because he was definitely feeling his age at the moment and if he did that then she'd get that tick above her eye….

Jack shuddered. Bad things were in store whenever Janet got that tick. It was the tick of doom.

Daniel was reading something. Penlight stuck between his lips because apparently the infirmary lights weren't strong enough, even though Jack was seeing dots from their brightness. Teal'c was sitting stoically and Jack would have almost been tempted to try and annoy him if it hadn't been for the debriefing, not that Jack was worried about Jaffa retribution or anything.

Because Jack hadn't done anything.

Really.

That just left Colonel Dixon from SG-7, who was currently asleep, and who Jack would let to continue sleeping because he knew from previous experience how grumpy Dave was when he was woken suddenly. And then there was the other guy. One of the new implants to the SGC. Something Lorne. Who was doing his best to look relaxed at the same time he was obviously trying not to let his hands leave where he had them firmly planted on his own bed.

"So, Lorne, I heard you had an interesting mission while we were gone," Jack said, dragging his nails across the skin under his chin. He could admit, he was fascinated despite himself. He had never, not once in the three years of meeting alien races and more off world trips than he could count, ever meet anyone that particular shade before. Just looking at the guy made his own skin itch.

"Sir, that's cruel and unusual punishment." Lorne said finally who, for his part, appeared to be losing the battle not to itch.

"Can't help it, Captain. Infirmaries make my skin break out. Speaking of, your looking pretty itchy over there too. Danny, doesn't he look itchy?"

"Jack, don't drag me into this. I'm sleeping."

"Daniel, you're reading a journal and have a pen light stuck into your mouth, aimed at the pages so that you can read it since Janet installed that lock on the lamp beside your bed." Because Daniel was the only one in the SGC, besides Siler, who had actually been assigned a bed in the infirmary.

"It's all your imagination Jack."

Jack continued to star at Daniel thoughtfully, his attention momentarily distracted from teasing the rookie. After several minutes, Daniel looked up irritably. "What?"

"Where were you hiding that?" Jack looked over Daniel, his mind running through possible hiding spots and dismissing them just as quickly. Danny hadn't carried them in with him because knew for a fact that the first thing Janet had done was take away all of their toys.

Granted, Daniel was a man of surprises every so often, crafty enough that Jack was occasionally impressed by the depth of his deviousness. Though...sometimes Jack had learned that he just didn't want to know and something was telling him that where Danny had stashed to penlight and book was one of those things. It could end up like that time with the bologna and Jack still couldn't eat the stuff. "You know what, never mind."

"So, Lorne…." Jack started.

"O'Neill stop pestering my second." Damn. Caught again.

"Dave, I was just asking…."

"If you don't stop, I'm going to tell Carter about that time."

"What time?" Jack said. Crossing his arms and doing his best to look unworried. Which apparently didn't work since Dixon grinned. Dave Dixon was a cruel man. A cruel man who understood Jack's deep and abiding love for making things go boom and his weakness for pushing incredibly interesting looking buttons. Dave was also the one man who had possibly been with Jack when he'd perhaps blown up things he hadn't supposed to have been messing with. That one time. Or maybe it had been twice. Or maybe three. Or...some things were just better not keeping a track of. After all, they'd known each other for quite a while, have even served together on a couple of occasions before the SGC. There were commanders who had names for what happened when Jack, Kowalski, and Dixon had been stationed together. Trouble and instant transfer mostly. "You can't prove any of it."

"Only because the evidence blew up." Dixon grunted and Jack settled deeper into his bed.

"Which is why you can't prove it."

"Jack, what thing?" Daniel asked again.

Jack was saved from having to answer by Janet's arrival. He was grateful for her entrance for about two seconds until her eyes narrowed slightly. "Colonel Dixon, Captain Lorne, you're cleared to return to your rooms, apply the ointment I gave you two times a day for the rest of the weekend." Lucky bastards.

Jack glared.

Dave smirked.

Lorne did his best to hide a smile.

Daniel still asked what the "thing" was that Jack had done and if involved any red buttons.

Teal'c raised his eyebrow.

Janet's eyes narrowed even more and O'Neill wondered if she was still able to see with her eyes like that.

"Good luck," Dave called out his hands on the door.

Jack grinned. He waited until Dave was just passing through the doors when he began to whistle the theme for the Smurfs. Dave stilled.

Turning on his heel, Jack hid his smirk and looked innocent. "You know, O'Neill, till we get cleared for field you have the rookie."

It took a moment for Jack to realize what Dixon was talking about because Lorne sure as heck wasn't going into the field till the rest of SG-7 was cleared. And he was the newest...oh. No.

"I'll get out," Jack hissed. "Just you wait. You've got payback coming Dixon!"

Dave's laughter seemed to reverberate through the room through the room as the door closed behind him. Turning to complain to Daniel, Jack came face to face with Janet.

"Colonel, we need to get you and SG1 back on your feet." Janet said, taking a stethoscope out of her pocket. "I was going to relay General Hammond message about Major Finn accompanying SG-1 to PX-730 on Monday since SG-7 won't be cleared to go back into the field for another week. However, it seems I was beat to it."

"You can't be serious, Doc. Did you not see what he did to SG-7? We have bad enough luck as is!" Jack squawked. There wasn't anything really wrong with SG-7. They could go into the field. They were still ok. A little banged up sure. But ok. More or less. There wasn't anything majorly wrong with SG-7 outside of being a little blue.

Literally.

~-~

Buffy struggled. She felt like there was something. Something she was forgetting. Something important. She couldn't breathe. Her throat burned and her chest hurt. The pain was blocking out everything else. If only she could remember.

The slamming of the kitchen door startled her, drawing her attention away from what she had been trying to remember and the pain subsided some. Blinking she looked down and picked up her crayon. Maybe if she made a picture pretty enough Daddy would like it and wouldn't be so angry.

Samantha stood at the sink, a soup bowl rested forgotten in her hands, soap suds slowly bursting across her hands, leaving a faint spectrum of rainbow colored residue behind.

Finally, Elizabeth set down her crayons and stopped pretending that everything was normal.

Stopped pretending.

It was something her daddy said. Whenever she was scared, whenever she heard sounds in the night, whenever she thought there was something lurking in the shadows that was what her daddy said. Stop pretending.

A chill stole across the exposed skin of the back of her neck and she shivered momentarily, a memory stealing unwanted across her mind, skittering across her thoughts and leaving behind disturbed ripples.

A few days ago, when her mommy had picked her up from school there had been a man waiting outside of the school. Elizabeth had only caught a glimpse of him as she climbed into the back of her mother's car, but she could still remember his eyes. Or rather the lack of them.

She remembered staring into the man's face and found herself staring into black holes where the eyes were supposed to have been.

Every night since Elizabeth had woken up screaming, remembering the black holes and she dreamed that she fell inside, that the black swallowed her, and no matter how much she screamed no one could find her.

She woke up every morning more and more tired, this morning she'd woken up her throat sore. When Elizabeth had said it was because of the man with black eyes her father had told her to stop pretending.

They didn't listen when she told them. And Elizabeth was trying to stop pretending. She really was. She didn't want to see those things. She didn't want to hear echoes of whispers in the night. They didn't listen. Never listened. Except for mommy. And that made Buffy feel even worse. Mommy listened and daddy said mommy was encouraging her fantasies.

Outside, Elizabeth could hear the raised voices of her mother and father, though the words were garbled, she could tell the tone. They were angry. And fighting. Again. About Elizabeth. Again.

Sam leaned closer to the window.

From her seat, Buffy could see her sister's reflection frowning, a tiny crease marring the otherwise smooth skin of her forehead, and Buffy coughed.

Sam jumped, the bowl landing back in the sink with a loud crash and Elizabeth tried to apologize but she coughed again.

From outside, Elizabeth could hear a car door slam.

Daddy was leaving.

Samantha's shoulders slumped for a moment. Just a moment and then she pushed away from the sink and crouched in front of Elizabeth.

She wanted to ask why Daddy was leaving. It didn't matter that she knew the reason. Her Daddy had a job. An important job and people depended on him.

He was a hero.

Her hero.

Except he'd promised to be home for her birthday and her birthday was tomorrow and Elizabeth felt the tears welling up because daddy had promised he'd be home and ever since Mark had left home, daddy seemed to stay away longer and longer.

Elizabeth felt the tears slowly trickle down her check. Sam silently gathered her into her arms, and Buffy didn't resist when she felt Sam lifting her up and away from the table. Elizabeth did look briefly back at the window, where she could just see her mother making her way back towards the house.

And just before Sam reached the doorway, Elizabeth looked back at the table, where her picture laid forgotten where two gaping holes stared back at her just waiting to swallow her whole.

Elizabeth shivered, burying her face in Sam's neck, holding on just a little tighter.

"It's okay, Buffy," Sam said softly as she tightened her hold.

~-~

Sam sat in her lab. She could feel the ache in her back, evidence that she had already spent too much time perched at the edge of her stool as she bent over the keyboard of her computer.

Before her, the cursor blinked mockingly at her and just the fact that she was thinking the cursor was mocking her brought to mind that she was probably spending too much time with the Colonel.

She had tried to finish the report. She'd spent the better part of three hours staring at the same three paragraphs.

So far, she'd entered some data about the planet itself, the little she'd been able to glean about the air, the soil composition, scientific details in all, including the Goa'uld technology the town's leader had been carrying, but that was it. She hadn't really gone into the mission itself. Every time she tried she saw Teal'c being lowered into the water and she kept remembering the air bubbles breaking the surface of the water, their frequency slowing until they had stopped. Or even worse, every so often the memory of Teal'c laying on the stone slab, his body wrapped in muslin, so very still….

The mission was going to give her nightmares fuel for a while. And Janet had already stopped by to talk to her, as well as the General. Janet to make sure that Sam didn't need to be locked into the infirmary like the other members of her team had been and the General to "make sure she was 'okay'", as well as order her to go home and get some sleep.

And they hadn't been the only ones to stop in and visit her either. Sergeant Siler had been by on his way from the mess for a late night snack and had chatted with her for a few moments. Walter had stopped in and said good night. A couple of the other scientists had stopped into her lab, talking with her briefly about what had happened in her absence, going over material they'd already submitted their own reports about, and in a couple of occasions complain about the new guys. Mostly, everyone avoided talking about the recent mission, with the exception of Hammond and Janet, and each experience had left Sam more and more wrung out.

She was tired. Physically, emotionally, mentally. She was exhausted. And that was having at least gotten some rest over the few days leading up to their mission. She couldn't imagine why the others of her team had been so sleep deprived. While this last mission had been difficult, SG-1 had been through a lot more rigorous missions than this one. In fact, past Teal'c being drowned, it didn't really top the list in close calls for the team. And it was bothering her that the others had been so secretive lately.

She'd already caught them several times talking about something and by the way they all changed subject when she got close enough to hear she had a feeling that what ever it was, she was at the heart of what the others had been discussing.

Subtle her team was not.

Or it was all part of her imagination. With the stress of having Buffy's memories dredged back up and then everything they had endured on the last mission, she was perhaps being a little paranoid. After all, her team, not the most subtle people ever and they really could not keep a secret from each other for long.

For the most part.

If it came to lying to someone that Jack didn't like or trust, Sam had seen him do so frighteningly well without batting an eyelash. Lying to someone he respected or cared about…Jack never seemed to do well with that. Daniel. Daniel was an open book. Guileless in his emotions, and loyal.

Sam knew he'd been looking for stuff about her sister. She didn't think he had found anything because it wouldn't be like Daniel to withhold something that important, or at least, she didn't think he would.

If he were….

It would explain some things.

Sam straightened up, possibilities running through her head. Minimizing the screen her report was on, Sam brought up a new tab in her computer, running another search on the base's security system, putting in a query for any searches that had been run through the bases systems in the last month and a half that had any pertinence to the supernatural as opposed to archaeological and found…nothing.

The small bit of energy that had started to wash through her suddenly petered out, leaving her more tired than she had already been.

Shutting down the window, she opened the report again, and saved the document before shutting down her computer. She could call it back up at home on her laptop if she decided to work on it more later.

She couldn't face it now. Perhaps tomorrow morning.

Shutting off the lights to the lab, she closed the door, and heard the soft click of the lock engaging. The trip to the elevator passed quickly, it had seemed like one moment she'd been in the hallway outside her office and then she had been in the elevator. She wasn't even aware of pushing the button, the trip was quiet. Uneventful. It left too much silence and Sam did her best to keep her mind clear.

There was a faint stutter as the elevator stilled and the doors opened. Major Davis gave her a tired nod that she returned, and he settled into the opposite corner of the lift.

"I'm happy you all returned safely," he said, "we were all worried."

There was a small relieved smile on his face, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. There was something there, Sam had known Davis ever since she had been drafted to try and break the gate right after the Abydos excursion nearly four years ago, and while they weren't close friends, Davis was one of the few people on the base she did consider a friend.

"I heard you got yanked back to the base," Sam said, remembering snatches of her conversation with Janet while her friend had been checking her over after the mission. Supposedly, though since it was coming from Janet it was pretty much a give-in as being true, Davis had been called back less than a day after he'd left the base to scoop out another new possible candidate for the program. Granted, she'd also heard that it was mostly due to the selections that Major Finn had put in for his gate team. "Did he really choose international terrorists?"

Davis grimaced. "Not quite. The team he asked for has never been convicted of anything." The 'yet' seemed to hang in the air at the end of Davis' statement. "We are still working out how to approach them. And contact them." Sam patted him on the shoulder at the disgruntled look on his face in understanding. Seemed like a crap week all around.

The rest of the trip in the elevator and the subsequent walk out to the parking area was spent going over some of the events that had passed during the past day since Davis had been back. He told her the stuff no one else had. Like how Major Finn had been allowed to travel off world and he'd been put with SG-7, who had been a team member short due to a stomach virus, that the team leader Colonel Dixon hated Finn with a passion now, and his second in command, Captain Lorne, wasn't too fond of him either. However, their scientist, a botanist name Kirkpatrick seemed to have liked the newest addition to the SGC just fine. Which had landed the team in trouble. She had apparently been paying more attention to talking to the Major than she had been about where she'd put her foot.

"Everyone?" Sam laughed.

"Everyone, I was there when they came back through the gate." Davis smiled. "It seems as though the ground hadn't been too stable due to heavy rains the previous day, and when they were crossing what looked like a safe point in a river embankment. Kirkpatrick slipped, Finn because he was closest, grabbed Kirkpatrick, and ended up being pulled down. They slid far enough that they got caught in pocket of deeper water, and the current pulled them away. Dixon and Lorne went after them when they apparently triggered some hunting traps the planet's locals had put up. When they got back to base an hour later, Kirkpatrick and Finn were covered with mud about two inches thick; Dixon and Lorne weren't covered in mud, but they were covered in red welts. It seems the locals make their traps with the vines of a plant that have about the same effect on us as poison ivy except for one slight difference. Two minutes after walking though the gate the welts on both Dixon and Lorne began to turn from red to blue. Janet was threatening to dunk them into vats of ointment last I heard."

Sam laughed at the image and for the moment let herself forget about SG-1's last mission and her sister.

For a little while Sam just laughed; especially when Davis told her about how he'd heard on the way out that Colonel O'Neill had been caught trying to sneak out the infirmary while Frasier had been busy trying to look over Teal'c.

~-~

Ok, so thank you for reading. Hope everyone enjoyed the update. I am working on the next chapter now. Please forgive any mistakes.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything.

Summary: After leaving her sister in a mental institution years ago, Sam Carter had thought she had gotten over Elizabeth Summers untimely death three years ago. But, when Carter's alternate self from another reality comes through the Quantum Mirror she hears that Dr. Samantha Carter's ( "I prefer Samantha, thanks") sister, though having died at a young age, had a wonderful life, a loving husband, and a supportive sister. The incident leaves Carter wondering, had she not abandoned her own sister, would the young woman still be alive? Or, at the very least, would she have died knowing that her sister had loved her? But, is her sister really as dead as she believes? Nah. After all, what would have happened if no one had informed Sam that her sister had been brought back to life a year after her death? And now with the Goa'uld inching closer and closer, secrets and misconceptions are ready to be brought into the light, whether any one wants them to be or not.

~-~

It was like Robin all over again.

Faith had never handled loss very well; she kept her eyes on the slight form laying in the bed before her trying to will her energy into it.

She forgot at times how small the other woman was, how young she was; it was hard seeing her like this. Quiet. Unmoving. As though the other Slayer were dead and not just sleeping.

Seeing her like this made everything else seem less important. Or more important. Something. Everything was kind of fuddled. She was tired, fighting to keep her eyes open.

There was a time when she would have been able to operate off of two or three hours sleep. Like, oh, last week. She was tired and worried. All she wanted to do was crawl into a bed and forget everything for a little while.

Except she couldn't. There was an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach, making it harder to step away. Some of it, Faith knew, had to do with Robin.

He had been wounded and dying, lying in a hospital bed, still like Buffy was now, only his breathing had been monitored, a soft beep of his heart beat from a machine letting them know he'd still been hanging on.

Buffy and Dawn had sat beside her when the doctors had told her there was nothing more they could do. They held her hands when he had been taken off of life support and they had held her while she cried when he had breathed his last breath.

Faith's eyes strayed to the other still form on the bed. Dawn slept curled around her sister. Her face troubled even while she slept. Poor kid. Seemed like they couldn't catch a break some days. The hours were slipping by too fast for Faith. Already four hours had passed since Buffy had returned to the house and passed out. Their time was trickling out and there was nothing they could do.

Faith had already argued with Giles over whether to wake her or not and, in the end, neither one had been able to agree. She'd been left sleeping. Dreaming hopefully better dreams than what reality held for them all.

Faith just prayed that Dawn wouldn't be waking to a world where her sister wasn't a part of it anymore.

Beside her, she heard Giles come to stand next to her. Faith felt her hands ball into fists, the nails cutting into her palms, causing enough pain that it clouded the ache in her side that had been plaguing her ever since she'd woken up just a few short hours ago.

She wanted to argue. She wanted to scream. To rage and destroy. She wanted Giles to feel just as helpless as she did.

Except.

Except that he was. In the past few hours, it was almost as though Giles had aged a decade. He was just as lost as she was.

The realization didn't make things any easier. It just made her hate him a little less. She had never been good at dealing with issues, especially her own. She'd always been more of a survival kinda girl and survival sometimes dictated the flight option when confronted with the need to either fight or flight.

Survival at all costs. Even if it including tripping the poor bastard running in front of her. Lessons all that she'd learned living on the streets. Diana, her Watcher, hadn't been able to break those habits. Perhaps she could have if they had gotten more time.

Sunnydale instead had broken most of her bad habits. Sunnydale and an annoyingly perky blonde and her even more annoying younger sister. For two upper-middle class kids, the Summers' girls were surprisingly angst-y.

Life. Mortal enemies. Coma. Body swapping (with a little boyfriend screwing mixed in). Death(and Faith had been in jail but she was still a little pissed that no one had broken her out for that particular romp and had resorted to using a robot of all things). Resurrection. First evil. Fricking-Cleveland.

"I thought everything was starting to settle down. Hundred odd girls, most here, all ready and rocking to slay. Kicking demon ass and all." She couldn't keep the accusing note out of her tone. Giles had told them that. No less than seven hours ago when he'd sent Kennedy out instead of Faith.

Kinda hard not to sound pissed even when she felt bad for the guy. Pissed was pissed and Faith always did best when she was mad.

Giles, if possible, seemed to fold into himself a little more. "The demon activity has been slowing greatly. Many of the more dangerous ones have been going into hiding or they have been weakened by the First's death. There are, however, still some, which are powerful. I hadn't-" the words choke off and Faith didn't look at Giles because seeing him lose it is not on her night's agenda. "I hadn't expected this to be anything more than a simple slaying."

"Yeah, well, you were wrong."

The silence had the flavor of agreement, not that it made Faith feel any better, until she finally broke it because seriously, listening to Buffy's struggling breaths were hard enough. She did not need to hear it in echo because of the room's freaky acoustics.

"What's the deal, G?"

There had to be a deal. Some stick had been stuck up the watcher's ass since army boy had come by and sniffed around Buffy.

"I don't know."

"Don't know or won't share?"

"There have been reports." Giles said slowly.

Faith did her best not to interrupt or snort. There were always reports. Like every ten minutes. Ever since Giles had found out that there were still a few Dimwits (Xander's nickname for the surviving members of the original council. Dastardly Ignorant Monoculed Watchers in Training, which none of them wore monocles of course, but since Xan hadn't been able to come up with something better, it had stuck). Twenty in all, four teams of five, each one with their own lead Slayer and a group of the more promising Slayerettes, and all reporting to Giles every five minutes because God if they had to actually make a decision on their own. Hell. Lorne was with one team at the moment trying to keep a twenty year old Dimwit and the 18 year-old lead Slayer from killing each other. Had to love repressed sexual tension.

"Some of the Potentials were never found. They simply dropped off the end of the world as it were. And the only reason we know their disappearance was not due to the First is because they were seen by family or friends anywhere from six months to five days ago before they vanished."

"You think the guy has something to do with it?" The thought didn't fit. Not with how Buffy had greeted the guy. One the other hand, it wouldn't be the first time that one of the good guys had gone bad.

"I think something is out there. Something we haven't heard about. Willow called shortly after this Major Finn had left. They had been able to finish the warlock with no problems two days ago. Originally, they were to go and meet one of the activated Potentials, see if the girl required training and where she would best fit. The girl disappeared five days ago. This is the seventh disappearance I have heard of." Giles rubbed at his eyes tiredly. "I don't know if the man, Davis, has any connection. But the disappearances and his sudden arrival to 'check out' the grounds and students was an odd coincidence."

"And you didn't like him?" Faith prompted.

"And I didn't like him." Giles agreed.

"It annoys you when things pop up from her past that you don't know about huh?" She fished, watching Giles now intently.

"Quite."

Silence fell back over them. Less intense than before. A little. Enough that Faith's fists uncurled.

"It never gets any easier. Watching her walk through the door. Watching her leave and wondering if something will get lucky, manage to get that one attack that ends it all. Watchers were never supposed to care for their charges. It, after all, would be pointless to care about this thing that was apart from humanity; a child that was just as much demon as the things she fought. None of the manuals, of the other Watchers, not even my own father told me that watching a charge walk towards danger would be more like watching my own child doing so."

"They never told me that I would care. They never gave me instructions on what to do when the charge argues back and tries to drive you slowly insane while at the same time making you ridiculously proud. They never said that she'd aggravate me or that she'd completely ignore everything I ever told her to only surprise me every so often and show me that she'd actually paid at least some attention"

Giles moved forwards, brushing away a lock of blonde hair from the sleeping Slayer's face before he stepped back. "I was never told that one day she'd outgrow me. They never told me that one day I'd have to let her go. Not to die. She's already proven surprisingly resilient to death. No. Would you like to know why I sent Kennedy in your stead?" He didn't pause long enough to Faith to give a response and Faith figured that Giles hadn't really been expecting one.

"I've seen how close the two of you have become, how well you work together. The other Slayers work in groups, even Kennedy though she denies it works best in a group for all her arguments to the otherwise. The two of you don't quite fit. It's like you have both outgrown this life. Your calling. Seeing Buffy today, how happy she was seeing an old friend, it made me realize that I would eventually have to watch Buffy leave. She's not made for this life anymore."

"Supernatural activities have slowed enough that the two of you would grow bored. Grow complacent. I doubt she even would have been injured on this last patrol if not for Kennedy. She Slayed that demon. Brought that foolish girl back here to be treated, before passing out. She put that bloody dagger in my hands so that I would know what kind of demon they had faced, because while demon blood varies in color from species to species, only one kind bleeds that shade of purple and acts like a sleeping draught. She did well and I can only hope that she wakes so I can tell her that myself."

Eventually, Giles sighed, a sound full of mourning, and he sat at the foot of the double bed. Faith moved towards the other end, settling herself against the headboard, far enough away that she could move if the woman beside her moved, close enough that she could restrain the other Slayer if it came to that, near enough that she could track the barely perceptible rise and fall of the blonde's chest.

They sat there, silence surrounding them, silent witnesses to a battle they could not see.

She hoped that Buffy would wake up too, they fell back into silence. Absently, Faith rubbed at her aching side, distantly wondering what she had done to injure herself there.

~-~

"You look like crap. kiddo," Hank said as he sat down.

Buffy snorted because honestly, she knew she did. Her hair hadn't seen a brush in a week, never mind a straightener, no makeup, lack of sleep, and while white was a cute color in moderation, the all-white jump suit the place had her wearing wasn't doing anything more than making her look more than a little washed out.

Of course, the soul crushing knowledge that the one person, two if she counted Sam, people she had counted on to have faith in her, to believe her had agreed to put her in this place. Yeah. That probably wasn't helping any either. She was tired inside and out.

Hank's eyes skittered across the room to where Joyce was standing across the room. Even from a distance, Buffy could see how angry her aunt was as she spoke with Jacob and the doctor.

"So, here's the thing. Joyce and me, we talked it over and what ever happened at the school happened at the school. What ever happened after it...happened. There aren't any charges that were brought against you and the kids were obviously on something. We're just happy your ok, we know you thought you saw things, but after what happened, we think anyone would have had a hard time coping." Buffy studiously did not meet his eyes. She wasn't prepared for another member of her family to call her crazy, even if the family connection was by marriage. "But, we don't think you should be here after everything."

Hank smiled. Buffy wanted to cry. Standing he moved around the table and crouched down beside her. "So, the thing is, we want you to come and be with us. For as long as you want. Jake has agreed, if you're willing." Buffy flew across the small space between them, her arms latching around his neck, and buried into his neck. Hank gave a startled laugh and returned the hug just as tightly. Buffy didn't even care she was so exhausted she felt like she was about to collapse or the painful twinge in her side the movement had caused. She tensed when she heard the guards approach them. Gently disengaging her arms from around his neck, Hank tucked her body close to his, shielding her with his larger frame. Buffy felt pathetically grateful.

"Sir, you need to step away from her-"

"No, I don't believe I need too-"

"It's ok, Morris, Miss Carter is leaving us." Dr. Lee said, drawing close to them. Joyce and Jacob trailing alongside of him. "Against my advisement."

"Well, you can take your advisement and-"

"Joyce," Hank interrupted and Joyce's mouth snapped closed. Buffy looked at her aunt and watched as she visibly stamped down on her anger.

Clearing her throat, Joyce moved in on the other side of Buffy and smiled down at her. "How about you two go and get your things? I have to finish up the paperwork and then you can come home." Buffy nodded and allowed Hank to guide her away. She spared a glance at her father as they turned away, took in the grim twist to his lips and defensive posture. It hurt to look at him and see that he didn't want her to leave the institution either. It hurt almost as much as when he had put her in there.

"Come on, kiddo, let's blow this Popsicle stand. I'm dying for some Chinese and I think this place is literally killing my soul. I mean, look at the decor, how can they expect people to get better when that god-awful paint job..." Buffy let Hank's words wash over her, just listened to the sound of his voice and tried to make it drown out the argument she could still hear going on behind them.

"Joyce, she shouldn't be leaving, she still believes in those things."

"Can it, Jacob, Anne would be having a fit right now if she knew about you putting her baby girl in a place like this. She went through something traumatic and she needs people who are going to care for her, not people who are just going to foist her off like some inconvenient problem."

"That's not fair-"

"And, you don't have a say in it. You've already signed the paperwork. Now, Dr. Lee, if we can please get this finished. I agree with my husband. The paint job here is truly horrendous and it's killing my soul. I would like to take my family out of here as soon as possible."

"Of course, Mrs. Summers. Let's go back to my office..."

Everything was like a dream. It all passed in a hazy blur. Being given back her own clothes, the trip to the car, Joyce's arm wrapped around her as she sat with her in the back seat. Buffy felt her eyelids grow heavier and heavier, the ache in her side making her uncomfortable enough that she wasn't quite able to fall asleep. The miles seemed to slip seamlessly into one another, the sound of the car and quiet words of her aunt and uncle just enough to lull her into a light sleep. She just needed to rest her eyes for a little...

~-~


End file.
